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Today, as my daughter watched her Your Baby Can Read video, I had ghosts of the 99% Invisible podcast dancing through my head. In a flash I realized that the time-line indicator on every video program or site moves from left to right. This is was someone’s conscious design choice. There was an option to move from right to left.
The Your Baby Can Read videos show words and then have an arrow underneath them that slide from left to right to train the babies to scan words that way. Again… left to right.
Once you think about it, the time-line indicator decision is obvious. We scan everything from left to right. It’s second-nature but it’s not natural, it’s something we learn before we even realize it.
My question: do time lines and play buttons in Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia go the other way?
Tonight, during the 3rd quarter of the New England Patriots & Denver Broncos playoff game an ad ran with children reciting (preforming?) John 3:16 in what I think is a pretty cute way… I had to say I liked it. But, as soon as I saw the Focus on the Family logo come up, I knew that there would be a good bit of Twitter buzz about it. Sure enough, within 30 seconds of the commercial there were about 100 messages. The only ones that were’t strongly for it or against it were merely funny.
Social media doesn’t tell the whole story. It can’t because people only share what they choose to share.
“Tebow mania” and the sheer amount of vitriol toward Focus on the Family compounds the truth that the Gospel is one of two things to people who resist it: a stumbling block or foolishness.
So, here’s how the response on Twitter breaks down:
- All of the people who liked it were already Christians, people who weren’t Christians didn’t like it.
- The use of kids was either “cute”, “powerful” and “classy”; or “manipulative” and “disgusting”.
- The connection to Tebow was mentioned pretty often, some thinking he paid for it. Others pointing out that FotF chose not to play it during the 49ers game.
There were a few mentions that all of the children were white. (I can’t confirm this, but I saw it a few times.) [EDIT: About 5 minutes after I posted it I found it on YouTube. This isn’t true at all, the first child was African American and when they have all the kids together it’s apparent that there are a LOT of minority children.
But, Twitter has a blind-spot. There are a significant group of people that haven’t said anything about it: people who have been drawn toward Christ because of it. Realistically, people are not going to come to Twitter and say, “that kids John 3:16 commercial really made a difference.” But, Isaiah 55:11 promises that God’s Word does not go out without effect. The people it’s affecting are not here.
This is one of the ways that social media will always fall short. The first people that will hear about the commercial’s effectiveness will be spouses, parents and perhaps a few pastors tomorrow morning.
For people in ministry, we have to remember this – social media can be effective, but it’s affecting people in real life (I like the term “meat space“) and we may never see how.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. — 1 Corinthians 3:7-9
So history starts with the first Adam, and Jesus is called the last Adam in places like 1 Corinthians 15:45 and Romans 5:12–21. The first Adam sinned and this last Adam atoned for sin. Through the first Adam, the human race fell; through the last Adam, members of that race can be saved. Through the first Adam, there was condemnation; through the last Adam, there can salvation. Through the first Adam, we inherit a sin nature; through the last Adam, we receive a new nature. Through the first Adam, we’re born sinners; through the last Adam, we’re born again, saints. The first Adam turned from God in a garden; and the last Adam turned to God in a garden, the Garden of Gethsemane. The first Adam was a sinner; and the last Adam is a Savior of sinners. The first Adam yielded to Satan; and the last Adam defeated Satan. The first Adam sinned at a tree; and the last Adam atoned for sin on a tree. The first Adam brought thorns; the last Adam wore a crown of thorns. The first Adam was naked and unashamed; the last Adam was stripped naked and bore our shame. Everybody is born in Adam. My hope is that you would be born again in the last Adam, Jesus Christ. See, Jesus is the better, greater Adam.
Mark Driscoll – How Jesus Taught the Bible
