One of the most frustrating things about having an online presence is when you share something beautiful and meaningful and the kill-joy shows up.
I’ll post a picture of a beautiful church and off in the corner behind a wall, the head of a guitar will be poking out and someone is going to ignore the beautiful church and laser-focus their eyes on the guitar head and exclaim, “Is that a guitar?!?! Now I know what kind of church that is. Humph.”
As if the organ is the only sacred musical instrument.
Or, I’ll post some lyrics of a Rush song that I find super meaningful and someone will ignore the lyrics and exclaim, “Rush?! Don’t they worship the devil???!!!”
(Sigh) No, Rush doesn’t worship the devil. Can we focus on the lyrics? Aren’t they impactful?
Or I’ll share a picture of a Catholic destination and someone will let me know that they blew up my picture to life-size, measured the hem of my skirt and found it to be 1/16 of an inch too short.
You think I’m kidding but I’m not.
My point in saying all this is that it’s important to remember to have joy. If your faith life has turned you into the scowling grump behind the screen that scrutinizes every picture and message with a glass-half empty lens, you will do more harm than good.
If you miss the magnificent forest for the one piece of litter on the ground, you will suck the joy out of everything.
Trust me, I know there is a time and place to correct and admonish, but don’t let that be all you do.
If you find, Catholic Pilgrims, that your inclination is to see all the wrong and never the right, that needs some self-reflection and a good talk with God. And maybe you also need to rock out to a Rush song. 
Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Thursday.
2 responses to “Daily Reflections: 17 August 2023”
I enjoy your posts Amy, but I think maybe this one could have gone unsaid.
It sounds as though you have a legitimate complaint about people nitpicking your posts, but I think venting your frustrations on Facebook doesn’t really serve anyone and only invites people to vent about the time someone tried to correct them. I think it would be better to answer nit pickers by dismissing them gently rather than to talk about those people as “kill joys” on your Facebook page. I think that only invites commenters to vent about their fellow parishioners, who might have tried to correct them. Sometimes you have to just patiently bear those people, you know, for the sake of the unity of the church, as an example of humility and charity. Just the 2 cents of a perfect stranger – I hope I’m not one of those kill joys you spoke of… peace and prayers!
The point of the post was to draw attention to the fact that people are so hyper-focused on the nitpicky stuff that they come across as grumpy, overly-critical, and joyless. We all can be a bit that way and it doesn’t really help draw people to Christ. I usually get a point across by telling personal stories and I rarely if ever address the nitpickers. Every once in awhile I do, but very rarely. I usually let them go and deal with people that have a more serious disagreement. I see a lot of Catholic pages that are just one negative thing after the other and all joy is lost and it’s sad to me because the church is rich in all the ways to find joy. I don’t mind being corrected if it’s a legitimate issue–the nitpicky stuff is nine times out of ten not legitimate. Just two days, ago, I think, I encouraged everyone to accept correction and criticism if it is coming from a place of fraternal correction and learn to be humble. So, hopefully, I’m addressing both sides of the issue.