Wednesday, September 16, 2015

God's Not Dead- my social experiment

Yes, it was me. If you don't know what I'm talking about then I apologize for not being able to make you a part of my social experiment. Either, I somehow skipped you when I was going through my phone or I don't have your phone number. See, the majority of the people on my phone's contact list don't have my new number (new as of Dec 2014) and after watching the movie "God's Not Dead" I felt compelled to send out my mass of text messages, saying that very thing (which is how the movie ended). Wondering all the while what would happen. I mean, if I got a text message at 1 AM saying God's Not Dead, from a number I didn't know, there would be a few interesting thoughts that would go through my mind. The people who knew it was me thought I was having a breakdown or something. "Are you ok?" "What's going on?" I love them for that. I wish I could say I had a divine encounter, but that is not the reality of, or the reason for, the comment.
My favorite response was Fuck Off. I chuckled because of course I knew who she was, right, so it was even more entertaining to get that one! Although, to be honest, I was surprised I didn't get more of that general sentiment.
Mostly, it was silent. My hope is that the message was read with curiosity and maybe even a tiny hint of goodwill. I only received three replies stating that I had the wrong number. I wish I could contrive some sort of statistical analysis that shows the much higher number of no responses over the negative responses shows that the people were not bothered to see God's name scroll across the screen of their smart phone. I don't think I would get away with taking that leap.
There was one group conversation that ended up making me confused...2 people asked who the sender was, and their confusion was apparent. Although, the one seems to have realized it was an opportunity to make the other person completely freaked out and said a few strange things about wishing he knew who and where he was, along with a pic of Yoda...then mimicked the other guy when he said he wanted taken off the thread.... Well played young man, well played.
If ya can't beat em- join em.
I didn't know what to expect. Maybe in some small way, I wanted to know if the unexpected intrusion of God into people's lives would lead to a positive outcome. I know, I know...this experiment doesn't even cover that.
I will say, that when someone that I knew didn't have my number, replied with 4 little words, I was happy-
"Who said he was?"
Maybe that is what I found out.. For people who know God, the false statement makes no sense. Of course he's not dead, might as well have just said "No shit Sherlock"; and for people who don't know God, they don't care one way or another.


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