Don’t Tweet Your Life Away

Well now doesn’t that just sound new-agey. Stick with me. Last week P. Aaron, Mark and I got into a great conversation concerning tweeting during church.

P. Aaron expressed his profound disappointment that churches would allow/encourage this to go on. His point of view is the we have become far too obsessed with what we and/or our peers have to say about things, that we aren’t just stopped and letting the voice of God through into our lives. As we move forward with Lifesong Worship Center we were all sharing about how we desire to provide a worship environment that allows people to come, exhale and experience the presence of God. As such we will encourage people to focus as much attention as possible onto the presence and voice of God. (Joshua Harris has a great article that explains my point of view on this.) NOTE: This is a change for me.

Over the past few weeks as we are moving forward into this church plant and I am seeking the Lord asking Him what I should do. It has become overwhelmingly apparent to me that what I need to do is not terribly important. I need to become a bigger man of God. And I will. One of the things that stands in the way of this is the constant media distraction. Now, let me sandwich this by saying, that I love technology. I believe in leveraging the power of media, social networking, the interwebs and anything else that we can to communicate the Gospel effectively. BUT in my life, the constant drone of media in my life far too often drowns out the voice of the Lord.

SO. I am making some changes. I am not going to cancel any of my accounts. But I am removing my computer from my room. This will allow me to separate my life into better zones so that work is work; computing is computing and most importantly that I have a place that is a refuge from all of those things. You see ministry does not come from being a good tweeter. It comes from a place of constant communion with God. I want to be a person who stays in His presence, hearing from Him as much as possible.

I am not alone in this.

What stuck with me is this. That since I have been more and more involved online, I feel that my ability to rest, sit in silence, listen, journal, and reap inspiration from the writers that fueled me for so long (the Bible, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Henri Nouwen, Annie Dillard, Eugene Peterson, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, etc.), has greatly dwindled. And ultimately, I think that has led to less creativity from me.

(Rhett Smith has a couple of GREAT articles on this subject and hey anytime Nouwen is brought up, we should all pay attention! You Must Protect Your Inner FireDo Ministers Talk Too Much?)
Anyway, this is not a condemnation of anyone. It is simply an observation of my life. But I do hope that you take a second and examine your technology habits and make sure that you are providing ample time for experiencing, hearing and living from God.