BrainOut!
The mumblings of a Christian autistic husband, dad, IT guy and amateur radio operator - Will Brokenbourgh / AF7EC
Getting Canceled
I don't know about you, but it's frustrating to be 'canceled'.
About a week ago, I signed up for Twitter / X after nearly a decade away. Why did I bother to sign back up again? I was under the mistaken impression that the X staff cared about free speech. I reasoned that if Elon Musk is now the owner of X then maybe I could post about things that matter to me, share my blog posts and other things and I wouldn't get clobbered for being conservative-minded. Turns out my reasoning was in error.
Around 2015 or 2016 I terminated my account on Twitter because it seemed like everything I posted got 'lost' in the noise. I don't typically like to waste my time with unfruitful endeavors so after being piled under everyone else, I called it quits. I believe I had also quit Facebook due to me not wanting to be the 'product' a year or two before that, as well.
Being a lover and follower of Jesus Christ is extremely unpopular these days, at least in today's popular culture. Having clear and defined conservative beliefs about what is right and wrong can often get you 'in trouble' with the big platforms, especially social media and search engines. Apparently my blog's content became too 'controversial' at some point and my search engine ranking pretty much tanked. Now ninety-nine percent of the traffic I now see here is bots, search-engine crawlers and other non-human visitors. It can be discouraging sometimes, but I need to remember that God can make a difference even with just one real person's visit.
A story of being cancel-proof
There is the Bible story of Elijah and the prophets of baal. The short version of the
story is that the prophets of baal wanted to prove that their false god had power and
would prove that Elijah was talking nonsense. The sign that God or their god was real
was for a pile of wood to start on fire and burn a sacrifice. The prophets of baal
danced around, begged and what-not but not a spark was seen in their pile of wood.
Since God is actually real, Elijah had a pretty easy time ahead of him, right?
But to show just how powerful almighty God is, Elijah had the people douse his pile of
wood with twelve large jars of water. After Elijah prayed to the real and
living God, fire came from heaven, immediately catching the soggy wood on fire and the
sacrifice was burned up!
The story of Elijah and the prophets of baal is a powerful reminder that even if the odds are stacked against you, if you serve God, trust him and love him, anything is possible! I believe the same can be true of any believer in Jesus Christ -- even if all the establishments of the world come against them. Maybe that particular believer will lose the battle, be shamed by the world or even killed, but God is always capable of taking evil and producing good from it.
In my short time of using X recently, I have probably made some folks unconfortable and probably exceeded some threshold. Nothing that I posted was violent, extremist or 'hate speech' but I'm sure someone maliciously tagged or flagged me and suddenly my ability to post or even like others' posts was blocked. I tried to report the issue but was blocked from even doing that. So much for 'free speech' ... I don't think anyone can trust Elon Musk or any other non-believer to do the right thing anymore. I promptly deactivated my account (and no, I didn't 'rage quit').
As it turns out, minutes after deactivating my account, I saw a headline that announced that pornographic content would be allowed on X. So I guess it's yet another great reason to avoid the platform.
So much is going wrong in this world. The U.S. government is (and others around the world are) straying wildly from its intended purpose. Good, proper and correct institutions are called 'bad', 'hateful' and 'bigoted' now. Caring about God's people and his word are viewed as 'old fashioned'. Wrong is 'right' and right is 'wrong'. Whole swathes of people are chasing and living a lie and in their wake is destruction, dead relationships, violence and decay. This may sound like some 'doom and gloomer', but it really is the case right now.
There's only one solution to all of these lies, violence and broken lives -- Jesus Christ! If more people would heed the tugs of their heart-strings by God, if they truly were honest with themselves, if they could just get to a quiet place for a moment and realize the truth, they would experience alarm about where their life is, have a true willingness to change, turn from the lies and the nonsense, give their hearts to Jesus and turn to God and be healed! That might sound cliché, might sound over-simplified or naïve, but if more people did this, the faster our nation, and world, would heal!
As for me, I will continue to post on this blog, talking about Jesus, talking about God and writing things that I believe Holy Spirit is leading me to share. Since it is often difficult for me to speak face-to-face and I often cannot get the words out of my mouth, writing is the best way for me to communicate (besides serving others in various ways). I love all people, despite their beliefs or actions. I may not agree with them or the way they live their lives, but I love them nonetheless. I want to see people succeed, get set free from addictions, lies and emptiness. I know my God can do it, waterlogged wood or not.
God bless you, and thank you for reading!
About me
First and foremost I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. After that, I'm a blessed husband,
father and grandfather. I do remote computer work for a living although it's mostly
part-time. I'm an amateur radio operator - AF7EC. When I'm not working on the endless
list of house and car projects, I like to tinker with electronics, like to listen to
shortwave radio and write software (mostly open-source) in C, C++, Python and Free
Pascal. I usually run Linux as my main operating system but sometimes I'm forced to
endure macOS and Windows 11 for gaming with my son or testing software. Overall, I am
a big nobody, but always willing to share about Jesus and all that God has done for me
and my family.
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