Sadie Robertson Huff encourages all Christians to be social media influencers: 'Lead your followers'
Sadie Robertson Huff of "Duck Dynasty" fame recently told young adults at a Washington, D.C. church on Sunday that “everyone is an influencer” and that all believers should “lead your followers” on social media.
Robertson Huff and her husband, Chris Huff, were guest speakers at Passion City Church in Washington, D.C., where they discussed topics related to social media.
“Jesus speaks to the things that we're facing when it comes to social media. And it was just kind of funny that Jesus literally used the verbiage when He talks to His disciples to ‘follow Him.’ And I was like, that's funny because we follow each other all the time," the 25-year-old Robertson Huff said.
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"Obviously, it looks so different to follow Jesus then to follow someone on social media. But, I thought maybe if we can incorporate some of the principles and what it looks like to follow Jesus in our life on social media, it would be great.”
Robertson Huff, a podcaster and social media influencer, pointed the crowd towards two verses in Scripture — Matthew 5:15 and John 8:12 — which she combined to stress that the answer to conflicts caused by social media isn’t for all Christians to delete their accounts.
“[Jesus] says: ‘You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.' It says 'people don't light a lamp and put it under a stand.’ So, when I read that, I was like the answer to the Church for social media is don’t delete it," she added.
“I think a lot of times, we just go: 'Well, it’s horrible. Everybody delete it.’ Well, you’re not going to get the whole world to delete social media and you also don’t want to take the Church out of social media.”
When Christians choose to have social media accounts, she said, their No. 1 focus should be to bring glory to God by being a light in the content that they share.
“Don't delete it. You know, sometimes you need to take a break from it. I actually just did that. But be in it and be the light of the world in it. And the same way that people are going to see your light, as they're scrolling on their feed, people will see your Father through you,” Robertson Huff recommended.
“I've had so many God-stories of things that have happened through Instagram, through social media, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. And so, I don't think [social media] is necessarily a bad thing. I just think it's a reflection of how healthy we are. Because social media is what we make it.”
When she was in high school, the Louisiana native recalled feeling “hypocritical” on social media because she was posting her life one way, and “that was not exactly how it was behind the scenes.”
“My captions would have a happy ending, but my life didn't look like the happy ending. My pictures were filtered. But in reality, I was not in the best relationships. [I] didn't have a lot of great friendships,” she admitted.
As a result of not being fully truthful, while also seeing only the positive aspects of other people’s lives on social media, the reality star said she struggled with “anxiety, stress, insecurity, uncertainty and [feeling] discontent.”
“I remember just thinking: ‘This is just how it is.’ But, I think a lot of times, what we can do is you look around the world, and when so many people struggle with something, then you almost think that it's not a struggle anymore, but it's still a struggle,” she said.
“It's like because everyone's anxious, then it's OK to be anxious, or because everyone is insecure, then it's OK to be insecure because everyone talks about it. … But, it's not OK. It's less than the life that God's called us to live. So it's not OK. There's more to the story.”
Robertson Huff said as she continued in high school, she began to yearn for a more intimate relationship with God and she wanted to obey His Word.
As she began to pursue God more, she realized that the way she was portraying herself on social media was not honest. She said she wanted to experience true change.
“I just remember feeling like I got to take God at His Word. And in doing that, I had to really surrender a lot of things; turn from a lot of things. Repentance was involved in all of that, and really dive into this Word and understand what is ‘the more?’ What are the promises of God? What did God design me for?’” she recounted.
“When I began to understand His Word and how to receive those things by being within His Word, and in His Spirit and in His presence, … things started to change for me. … My priorities weren't worldly anymore. They were of God.”
Huff said that while “a lot of us want the promises of God," all too often “we want to live like the world," rather than walking "in obedience with the Lord.”
“It's so worth it. Obedience is always worth it. … And the world [is] saying, ‘oh, that's not fun.’ … I think it's way more fun to not live with anxiety and to actually be joyful,” she added.
Robertson Huff said Christians often tend to be quick to “unfollow, cancel, block, delete” anyone that says something they don’t like on social media, primarily because they give in to “cancel culture” or “unfollow culture.” And sometimes, Christians can treat Jesus the same way.
“I think we can have that tendency with Jesus. It's like, the minute we don't like something, or the minute we don't agree with something in the Word, or something feels off, we're like 'unfollow. I'm going to follow Him in this area of life, but not in this area of life.’ Or [we say]: ‘I like what He says there, so I'm with You on that, but not in that,’” she remarked.
“And I think this unwillingness to just commit to the Word of God is really showing in how if you're not committed, you're not going to get the full fruit of what it's like to follow Jesus."
