Spend much time on Twitter?...Even know what Twitter is?

by Mary Keen, M.Div., LMFT

612.332.7743 ext. 220
mkeen@wpc-mpls.org

I know what it is, but I don't spend much time on the website. However, many, many people do. For those of you who don't know, Twitter is a social network website where posted messages can only be 140 characters long. Some post their moment-by-moment activities-"This ice cream is really good, but I wish I'd ordered the rocky road instead of vanilla"-which are rather boring to read. Others post burning insights, such as "sometimes I feel more connected with strangers from across the world than I do with my own friends in real life." (one of the phenomena of social networking!)

Evidently the United States Library of Congress has decided that the Twitter phenomenon is worth noting and is archiving all Twitter entries since its beginning. A search engine is also in place, so anyone doing research will be able to sift through the short blurbs (Tweets) to document current thoughts or events at any given time since people started using Twitter. Moments such as the student uprising in Iran, current pictures of Eyjafjallajokull's eruption in Iceland, the earthquake in China or the landing of the space shuttle Discovery are all documented on Twitter. One can find job postings, product advertising, celebrity information, or personal thoughts of strangers. It is easy to get lost on Twitter, as I discovered the other day when doing research for this column!

Sometimes important moments can be reduced to a few words. A college friend's brother has been in a coma all last week, dying from an eating disorder. Today I received word he came out of the coma, is walking and doing well. All I could say to her was "wow!" Sometimes moments are so complex there don't seem to be enough words to fully grasp what is happening. When a couple is in marital distress, the words shared back and forth are often blaming, cutting, painful words. The unspoken words of hurt, disappointment, despair and fear are left unsaid, perhaps even unnoticed. Words unspoken are where the truth lies.

As people of faith, we live in the Word. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God... the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." John 1:1, 14

The Word, Jesus Christ, is our Twitter! The experience of God's love through Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection gives us something to Tweet about! Sometimes our faith can be summed up in one word: "WOW." Other times, God's presence in our lives is so complex that words are inadequate to describe the experience. We do know, however, that our life, no matter what we speak, write or Tweet, is the true description of Christ, the Word, living in us. How we spend our time each moment, how we treat our neighbors every day, what we do when no one can see us...this is where God's Word speaks most clearly.

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight.