Just sent an email to a friend who is having a tough time getting his life turned around. The email suggested he may wish to change the photos he has on FaceBook. Most of them are of himself and / or friends who are "partying" - youthful parlance for drinking and having fun with their faculties impaired.
EMPLOYMENT
It was suggested he may want a new set of photos on his FaceBook page. After all future employers may very well (many do) take a look at the type of person they are hiring by doing a web search. FaceBook postings show up in most cases. Do a web search on "job lost due to facebook" and you will get 11,200,000 hits. Eleven MILLION plus Two Hundred Thousand hits.
Then I thought why not try a web search for "not hired due to FaceBook" and I got a shocker - 117,000,000 hits. That's One Hundred Seventeen Million hits. Ten times more than hits related to losing a job.
The web is telling all of us something and it is telling us that something loud and clear. What is it telling us? Look at your postings through the eyes of a future (or current) employer and ask yourself if you would hire this person based upon his or her FaceBook postings (or keep him or her when the time for cuts come).
Take a real hard look and then ask yourself with as much honesty as possible - will my posting help me or hurt me in the future when I need a job or a promotion or some more job security, when I am married and have children or simply want some security in life as you get older. Look to your future.
AND NOW THE LAW
If you ended up in court for any reason with the power of the state arrayed against you or not the state, but someone who is suing you for some reason, would your FaceBook posting help you, hurt you, or have no impact at all?
A web search of "do police look at FaceBook" got 241,000,000 hits. Two Hundred Forty-One Million hits. That bears repeating - Two Hundred Forty-One Million!
The number two hit? "Police increasingly use social networking websites for police work." If police are using it, you can bet any attorney hired to sue you would also be using it to research you.
WORD TO THE WISE
If you want to protect yourself and your job and your family and especially your future you will take a long hard look at what you are posting on FaceBook. Don't trust your eyes alone. Ask someone to take a look with. A trusted friend who is NOT a partying with you, instead someone who's opinion you respect when you need a strong dose of common sense.
POSTSCRIPT: INSURANCE
Decided at the last minute to take a look at "denied insurance because of facebook posting" and got over Eight Million Seven Hundred Thousand hits.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Choices: Young Rich Ruler vice Paul (Saul)
In Mark 10:21, Jesus looked at him (the young rich ruler) and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Jesus looked at him and loved him, loved him so much He pointed the young ruler to where his earthly love conflicted directly with his love of God.
What did the young rich ruler do? Verse 22 gives us the answer, "At this [instruction] the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth."
Because he could not follow the direction as he loved his wealth too much.
Compare that to what Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) did.
Paul describes what he gave up to follow Jesus in Philippians 3 during an argument against requiring circumcision.
Making sure everyone knew circumcision was not required, he said, "If anyone could have confidence in things of the flesh" [circumcision] it was Paul, but he did not. Circumcision means nothing or as Paul put it, he had been "circumcised on the eighth day", was not only a member of the people of Israel, but also of the tribe of Benjamin and as he put it a "Hebrew of Hebrews" ... in other words no one was more Jewish than Paul when he was known as Saul of Tarsus. He also knew the law as a Pharisee and in zeal persecuted Christians. He had a righteousness based upon Jewish law that was considered faultless. He was not only a Hebrew of Hebrews, but also a Pharisee of Pharisees and a persecutor of Christians!
However, unlike the young rich ruler, Paul gave all of that up. Every bit of it.
Then he writes from a Roman jail saying he considered his loss of everything meaningless because of the "surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus" and in fact considers all that he had before garbage [worthless] and now he has a righteousness (v9) "through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith."
Paul made the choice the young rich man wanted to make and should have made. The young rich man went away with a sad face probably crying because he loved his riches so much. Paul gave up everything and had joy even while chained up in a prison dictating this epistle to the church of Philippi.
My advise, imitate Paul when your time comes to choose.
Jesus looked at him and loved him, loved him so much He pointed the young ruler to where his earthly love conflicted directly with his love of God.
What did the young rich ruler do? Verse 22 gives us the answer, "At this [instruction] the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth."
Because he could not follow the direction as he loved his wealth too much.
Compare that to what Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) did.
Paul describes what he gave up to follow Jesus in Philippians 3 during an argument against requiring circumcision.
Making sure everyone knew circumcision was not required, he said, "If anyone could have confidence in things of the flesh" [circumcision] it was Paul, but he did not. Circumcision means nothing or as Paul put it, he had been "circumcised on the eighth day", was not only a member of the people of Israel, but also of the tribe of Benjamin and as he put it a "Hebrew of Hebrews" ... in other words no one was more Jewish than Paul when he was known as Saul of Tarsus. He also knew the law as a Pharisee and in zeal persecuted Christians. He had a righteousness based upon Jewish law that was considered faultless. He was not only a Hebrew of Hebrews, but also a Pharisee of Pharisees and a persecutor of Christians!
However, unlike the young rich ruler, Paul gave all of that up. Every bit of it.
Then he writes from a Roman jail saying he considered his loss of everything meaningless because of the "surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus" and in fact considers all that he had before garbage [worthless] and now he has a righteousness (v9) "through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith."
Paul made the choice the young rich man wanted to make and should have made. The young rich man went away with a sad face probably crying because he loved his riches so much. Paul gave up everything and had joy even while chained up in a prison dictating this epistle to the church of Philippi.
My advise, imitate Paul when your time comes to choose.
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