Fake Activism - TWLOHA

Every once in a while, some new fad takes over my FaceBook wall and I’m forced to wade through dozens of posts promoting awareness for some new cause.  Sometimes it’s the color of a woman’s bra to promote Breast Cancer Awareness or some other bit of trivia for the Cause of the Minute.  This last weekend was To Write Love On Her Arms Day (TWLOHA) and I was treated to untold numbers of pictures of people who had written the word “Love” on their arms and taken pictures of it to boost awareness of the TWLOHA movement and their fight against abuse, molestation, incest, and other forms of sexual trauma.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the sexual abuse of children is horrible and every effort should be made to eradicate it.  And kudos to the TWLOHA people for finding a unique way to generate “buzz” and get their program out there.  In fact, it is really the trendy cause du jour among middle-class Christian teens.  It’s not uncommon at all to see a few TWLOHA T-shirts in most Youth Group meetings.

The concern I have is that this type of “activism” confuses meaningless symbolic acts (posting pics on FaceBook) with actually doing something meaningful and concrete.  If a teen writes a word on their arm, posts a pic of it, then goes on with their life with some sense of having actually accomplished something they are deceiving themselves.  Christ has not called us to a life of FaceBook posts but a life of service and sacrifice and if a Christian confuses the former for the latter then they are headed for a life that makes no impact for the Kingdom of God.  I’m not saying we should stop promoting causes we believe in, I’m saying our symbolic acts need to be followed up by some kind of sacrifice on our part for that cause.  Whether it be a monetary donation, volunteering to serve in some way, time spent in prayer for them, or any other thing you can think of; if our “activism” costs us nothing then it accomplishes nothing.

The Bible teaches us that our greatest joy is found in focusing on others.  In fact it’s often said that JOY is an acronym that tells us that in order to get Joy you have to put Jesus first, Yourself last, and Others in between.  You are robbing yourself when your life consists solely of symbolic acts when Christ calls us all to the joy that is available when we roll up our sleeves and actually do something for the Kingdom.  Let me encourage everyone who reads this go do something and find out for themselves that there is more joy in working sacrificially than posting pics on FaceBook.

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