Christians and Technology: Part 3 - Boundaries

There's not a single person who gets up in the morning and says to themselves, "Let's see how royally I can mess up my life, my marriage, my children, my Christian witness today by having an affair..."

Yet we have heard too many stories of a pastor or a Christian man/woman who no one ever thought ever would, who did.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new.

When King David should have been leading his army to war, found himself chilling at his palace at the wrong time and saw Bathsheba bathing in her home.

Had David been where he should have been, lusting doesn't happen, adultery doesn't happen, murder doesn't happen, and the cover up never happens.

And that's true for us as well. When we are "where" we should be, "when" we should be, with "who" we should be, doing "what" we're supposed to be doing most bad things never happen.

Divorce lawyers say Facebook is involved in 1 out of 5 divorces today.

While Facebook, Twitter, texting can be great tools to connect people with friends, it's also been used to rekindle old flames and maintain inappropriate relationships.

So how should Christians use technology differently because Jesus is Lord? The word for today is: appropriate boundaries.

If we ever find ourselves needing to hide something, that's a sure sign of bad things to come.

So as a general rule of thumb, every Christian should have at least two sets of people who have access to our social networks on the internet: our spouses (or someone who is close enough to tell us what we need to hear) and at least one accountability partner.

It's not that we are going to snoop around on our spouse's or friend's Facebook or Twitter account. It's just that knowing that they have full access and that they get our Facebook and Twitter updates provides a layer of protection for all of us. And we all need that.

Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, texts can all be wonderful tools. But just like anything else, we need appropriate boundaries of "who", "what", "when", and "where" of social networks.

Appropriate Christ-honoring boundaries.

So, with that, tweet and Facebook away!