As a child, I often heard the story "The Emperor's New Clothes". Today I'm at Out of the Ordinary, discussing how this tale has infiltrated the church. I hope you'll join the conversation.
During the months preceding my December social media hiatus I spent considerable time contemplating the quiet life and how best to cultivate it. As I thought about changes I've made and still more that need to be made, I concluded that it's not just a quiet life that I want, but a more intentional one. There are several areas of my life in which I want to be more intentional, however in this quiet place I will share but two. Intentional Reading . My past reading plans have set me up for failure. I've tried to read too many books, gotten sidetracked by the latest "must read", and generally been overwhelmed so that, at times, reading has been a chore. No more! I have developed a reading plan that allows me to immerse myself in certain topics. This year I will be leading a monthly study of Aimee Byrd's Housewife Theologian: How the Gospel Interrupts the Ordinary . In order to give this study the attention it deserves, all of my reading - including fiction - ...
In 1 Thess. 4:11-12, Paul exhorts the Church at Thessolonica to aspire to live quietly. As part of that instruction, he encourages them to mind their own affairs. It's not so easy in the internet age. Temptations are everywhere. Blog posts and Facebook statuses invite me into the lives of others, feeding the voyeur within me. But how much do I need to know? Is there any benefit in having such a wealth of information about mere acquaintances - their thoughts, their travels, their menus? Status reports and tweets can overwhelm me, stealing valuable time I have to invest in genuine relationships and luring me away from my responsibilities. One big lie of social media is that if we miss something, we miss something . My world won't shatter if I don't read every detailed status report, insightful link, or witty tweet. Part of a rich, quiet life means that I must properly mind my own affairs by: Prioritizing my involvement in the lives of those around ...
Increasingly, we are living our lives in the public forum. Hand-written letters to friends were exchanged for emails, which were exchanged for text messages, which have now been exchanged for tweets and notes on a Facebook wall for all the world to see. Secrets among friends, it seems, no longer exist. Meaningful friendships themselves may soon be a thing of the past. Social media has allowed us to collect "followers" and "friends" like trinkets on a charm bracelet. We are compelled to share intimate details of our lives with complete strangers, yet we are ashamed to ask those closest to us to pray as we wrestle against sin. We foster, as Carl Trueman writes , an "intimacy of strangers which is such a part of celebrity culture - for example, the faux-chumminess of all those tweeted exchanges and retweets, lives lived as soap operas mediated by the internet..." We brand ourselves with carefully crafted personas, afraid the true person cowering behind t...
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