There it was, plain as day. The weekend edition of the WSJ (January 13-14, 2018). And whether it was the late-night flight home or whether it was some delirium of two airports and the company of hundreds of fellow travelers, the headline triggered my imagination:

Facebook Puts Publishers on Edge

 I could see it in my mind’s eye: some giant Facebook profile with a wicked grin, gun in hand, threatening a group of grey pin-striped, dark-haired publishers with books in hand as they backed perilously toward the edge of a rocky cliff. Funny.

Now, I know Benjamin Mullin, in writing that article, had nothing of the sort in mind when clicking the keys for such an article. No, he wanted to talk about how digital publishers were worried that Facebook’s changes to its news feed would affect their ability to drive traffic to their content. Big news all right.

Joy beyond circumstances

But the headline had an unintended effect, and it made me think a little beyond Mullin’s primary theme: Facebook doesn’t affect my destiny. The headlines don’t affect my destiny. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t affect my destiny. The circumstances of life do not, alone, dictate my joy.

Victor Frankl said it this way: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

I get to choose joy. It’s not the choice of Facebook.

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Bill High

Bill is CEO & Founder of Vyne Legacy. He works with families to equip them with tools to build multigenerational legacies, and he teaches givers and financial advisers on transformational biblical generosity. He is the co-author with David Green of Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously.

Published April 16, 2018

Topics: A Life of Faith

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