How to Love a Troll - Amy Lively
Have you ever been trolled? A troll is someone who makes inflammatory comments just to get an emotional rise. They try to manipulate a conversation by making provocative jabs. Basically, they are a bully. Maybe you’ve been trolled online like I have. Maybe there’s a troll in your neighborhood who becomes irate whenever you mention anything about your faith in God. You might even have a troll in your own home who delights in tearing you down. What’s the best way to handle a troll? How will you respond when you are intentionally, meanly provoked?
If you search out my post, you will see that I didn’t always handle this perfectly. Thankfully, a couple of days later, still reading the apostle Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, I found the strategy for how to handle a troll a couple of chapters later. Let’s see what Paul says, then we’ll break it down:
“The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom but by God’s grace.”
2 Corinthians 1:12
TESTIMONY Paul is very aware that his actions are a witness. Every conversation and interaction leaves a mark on the world. Especially online, there is a trail of every careless word we have ever spoken or tapped out with our thumbs. Every like, every share – it’s all there, forever. (see Matthew 12:36-37). Trolls are especially talented at twisting our words and using them against us.
CONSCIENCE Beyond our public testimony, there’s also an inner knowing of our own motives. Paul is confident that’s he has conducted himself to the glory of God. Sometimes our intentions and others’ perceptions are two very different things!
CONDUCT How we behave in real life and online matters, even when dealing with people we don’t know. When I’m provoked anonymously, I want to respond vehemently. It’s hard to remember that behind the mask of a troll is a soul with their own hurt, sorrow, joy, and longing – a soul Jesus loves as much as he loves me.
