The problem with THSprobz

Recently a twitter account by the name of @thsprobzz popped up and began making humorous observations about Taylor High School (where I lead Young Life). The account quickly gained 500+ followers and the mystery of who was behind the account began to be discussed. As of this writing the vast majority of the public doesn’t know who is responsible for the account, and I include myself in that group. This is why I’m posting this article publicly and not talking directly to the person who runs that twitter account.

The author of these tweets is actually pretty witty, and has made some truly funny observations about THS.  (I didn’t actually attend Taylor HS, but I’ve lead YL there for the past 13 years, so I get a lot of the jokes, and I can testify that many of the observations are spot on.)

Here are just a few examples of particular tweets I enjoyed, this is by no means exhaustive as there are many, many more I found humorous (comments in parentheses are mine)…...

“The contrasting feelings you have towards your HUGE mum at the beginning of the day Vs. how you feel about it towards the end. #THSprobzz”  (this is a reference to homecoming mums)

“Amanda Jungwirth, leave some accomplishments for the rest of us!” (Amanda was quite the student athlete)

“Trying to be the first group to claim Westwood Gymnastics as their Sadie pictures spot” (many, many, many Sadie Hawkins groups took their pre-dance pictures here)

“The awkward moment when the majority of the school wears a sweater vest to make fun of their new principal #sweatervestday #THSprobzz” (this was the most awesome theme day ever!)

“If I were to conceive an Asian baby, I hope it would look JUST like Derek Bonesteel's #NOTthsProbzz @derekbonesteel @YoungLifeTaylor “(obviously I’m biased on this one) 

“Freshman getting booed at pep rallys #underthesea #THSprobzz” (I’ve been to 60+ pep rally’s at Taylor and this has happened at every single one).

You get the idea…..

Making a highlight reel of THSprobz tweets is not the purpose of this writing. I’m writing this to  whoever is behind THSprobz because there are plenty of other tweets from this account that are totally uncalled for or downright cruel and unkind. These tweets are speaking disparagingly about people I know and care about, so I'm motivated to do something about it.

My hunch is that I am friends with the person who is behind the account because they have made several Young Life references over the past 2 months, and they seem to have at least been someone who attended our YL club with some regularity. Now, just because someone came to Young Life doesn’t mean they claim to be a follower of Christ. In fact, just to clear up some misconceptions, Young Life is a club where people who are skeptical or downright don’t believe in Jesus as God, Savior, Redeemer, etc. are welcome! The entire purpose of Young Life is to share about Jesus in a non-threatening, relevant way so that high school folks can make their own decision about whether or not they want to follow Jesus. In simpler words, you don’t have to be a Christian to be a part of Young Life. I certainly wasn’t the first year and a half I went to YL club when I was a young high school lad. But after considering my own life and the claims of Jesus I decided to become a believer and haven’t looked back since.

If the author of THSprobz doesn’t claim to be a Christian, then I don’t have much to say other than you really ought to rethink this whole thing. You had a good, funny thing going until you started being vicious and calling people out about specific things they did in the past. You’re probably causing more harm to people than you might realize.

However, if the author of thsprobzz does claim to be a Christian, then let me talk directly to you……

I’m calling you out for slandering lots of people and being incredibly unloving. Normally I would just call you and say, “Hey, what are you thinking?” Then we could have a reasonable conversation about why this was a good idea gone wrong. Choosing to be anonymous on the internet has made that impossible, so I’m doing it this way, which is not the best way. Here's the deal man (or woman), Jesus has much better plans for you than embarresing other people on the internet, He is calling you to something far more meaningful and significant, so let this go and pursue something much better.

Finally, if I do know you, the fact that I wrote this doesn’t mean I hate you. It just means I think this was a good joke that got out of hand. If someone started tweeting all the worst things I did in high school it would be bad, really bad. In fact, this is probably the kind of thing me and my friends would have done in late high school/early college and then we would have had to go back and make a bunch of apologies for letting it get out of hand. That’s the kind of person I am, I sometimes let things get too far gone, and then stupid things happen. So be assured this doesn’t mean you are some sort of especially evil person. Everybody does things they later regret, we are all screw ups, who need to be rescued from ourselves (hint, Jesus is the rescuer).

PS - I realize by posting this that I’m opening myself up to all kinds of criticism and that somebody might decide to tweet about terrible things I’ve done, times I was unloving, embarrassing things that have happened to me, etc.  If you feel the need to do that I’d ask that you stop, call me, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee, you can tell me how terrible I am to my face, and I’ll gladly apologize for however I’ve wronged you.  I do it all the time.