Imagine if you will a field full of green grass and clover. The sun is shining. Birds are singing. In the midst of this beautiful scene is a sheep nibbling on some tasty noms. Said sheep dreamily looks up and notices the sun is now setting and she is all by herself. Somewhere between bites of sweet clover her master and her fellow sheep moved on.
Have you ever felt that way? One moment you’re enjoying the sweet companionship of Jesus and other believers and the next you’re sitting there wondering where the last few months (or in some cases years) went. We’ve become so busy and preoccupied with doing that we fail to be moved.
We may be even just running through times of intimacy with God. We look up one day and we seem alone, exhausted, with the wolf howling at the door.
Picture again said sheep. She frantically begins to look to her right and left turning around in aimless circles, the chilly wind cutting even between her voluptuous amounts of wool. She sees a dark figure against the setting sun coming towards her. Her little sheepy heart beats wildly. Her master has come looking for her!!! He lovingly scoops her up and carries her to the rest of the flock and the safety of his care.
No matter how preoccupied with doing, Jesus is always there to carry us back to the safety of His care.
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.” Matthew 18:10-14 (NLT)
So, where are you?
Earlier today I started a two part series called Pulling the Plug.
Since that first Sunday I’ve decided to leave Sundays social media free. I don’t need it clogging my day. It’s been sort of refreshing.
I mentioned yesterday that social media can control your life. It can haunt you. If you aren’t online people begin to wonder if you’re lying in a ditch or you wonder if others are.
I’ve allowed this to happen to me. I feel out of the loop if I’m not checking my Twitter or Facebook. I get that itch…you know the one. The one addicts get. After some prayer and leading from God…
The next 40 days are known as Lent. Being brought up in a protestant home I never really gave any thoughts to Lent. To tell you the truth I was probably in in my 20′s before I’d even heard of it. I knew Ash Wednesday was a Catholic observed day but that was about it.
The idea of Lent is Biblical. We are called to fast and pray. Jesus fasted and prayed.
For the next 40 days (actually 41 since I take Sundays off) I’m staying off Twitter and Facebook. No updates. No looking. No Twitpics. This will be difficult especially at work since these are sources of release from the stresses of – well – coworkers and work.
I will still be blogging during that time. You can add me to you RSS feed to see new blog posts come across.
You can pray that I hear and listen to God during this time.
Here is one final quote from Anne, “The ultimate question, for the social media world as for every other world, is this: Is how I’m spending my time bringing glory to God? When the online world becomes our only source of communication or inspiration, it may be time to take a little breather and log off.”
All excerpts used with permission from and rights belong to Anne Jackson; FlowerDust.net and Adam Smith; JackalopeKid.com.
A about a month and a half ago on a Sunday, kind of by accident, I decided not to log in to Twitter of Facebook. I didn’t check either all day. I discovered something…..
The earth kept on spinning. People were born and died. The sun and moon rose and each set at their appointed times. We so often get plugged into social media and forget what is going on around us. We have conversations with each other via 140-characters rather than over a cup of coffee.
As with most things moderation with social media is wise.
I’ve asked a couple friends who have taken lengthy breaks from Facebook and Twitter to share some of their experiences via my blog.
My friend Adam Smith of JackalopeKid.com recently took a three week fast from Twitter and Facebook to refocus his attention on God and listen to Him. I asked if he would be willing to share about this experience. Here is what he had to say:
“The first three weeks of January I fasted alot of things, but definitely the hardest one for me was fasting technology. It’s a big part of what I do. The reason behind this whole fast was to get closer to God and with all the computer stuff that I do, it’s hard for me to embrace all of God while my face is in a computer screen. I’m not telling everyone that they need to do this to find God, but I found it definitely helped me. It was a big distraction out of the way so I didn’t even have to think about it. I filled all the time that I usually spend on the computer with podcasts of people that speak positive words into my life and other things that helped my relationship with the Father. It was very refreshing.”
Last year my friend, author, and speaker Anne Jackson of FlowerDust.net completely deleted her Facebook account. Over the year I’ve been following her blog and tweets she’s taken numerous breaks from Twitter and blogging. She’s a busy lady currently on a mission trip in Haiti. She was gracious enough to provide me with a couple articles she wrote regarding her leaving Facebook and has given me permission to share some of what she wrote.
In her article, Why I Kissed Facebook Goodbye Anne writes:
That in 2006 when Facebook was opened to the general public she eagerly signed up and connected with a couple hundred friends.
“Later that year, I had an article published on women and porn addiction that drove a large amount of traffic to my blog. On my blog, I had a link to my Facebook account, and soon, the requests began pouring in. Before you could throw a sheep at me, thousands of people and I became friends.”
“Except for my husband suggesting (kindly and quietly) that I was becoming a little obsessed with my online persona, I didn’t think twice about my Facebook behavior. After all, it was ministry.”
She writes that after a speaking busy speaking engagement where she wasn’t constantly checking in on Facebook, “I was reflecting on the past few days and how, without the overload of information from my online habits, I felt as if I could hear the voice of God a little more clearly. As the Lenten season approached, I prayerfully asked God if there was anything I should set aside. He gently showed me how I had allowed social media to become my only conduit to Him, instead of simplicity and rest. I decided to give up blogging, Facebook, and Twitter for the six weeks leading up to Easter. Lent came to an end and I didn’t quite feel ready to return. Part of me felt a little obligated—after all, I had books to sell and ministry to accomplish. But every day I found myself pulling away more and more.”
“But old habits die hard. As soon as the ego began feeling a little neglected, I turned up the intensity of my interaction online. Anne shares that soon between a full time job, speaking, writing a new book, and being a wife, “My boundaries fell apart, and so did I. Being a naturally abstract person, I needed the structure to help me find a balance in how I was serving others as well as taking care of myself.”
“I toyed with the idea of completely closing down my Facebook account for a couple of weeks. For me, it wasn’t a life-giving place. On Sunday, May 24, I pulled the plug on Facebook and announced it on my blog. Do I think that Facebook (or any other form of social networking) is the bane of online humanity? No way. But for me, Facebook was a problem.”
Please check back this evening for Part 2…
All excerpts used with permission from and rights belong to Anne Jackson; FlowerDust.net and Adam Smith; JackalopeKid.com.
This morning on my way to work I decided to kick it old school. Soon Passion’s album Better is One Day was filling the four walls of my car at a loud volume. I sang along to a few songs and skipped ahead to the title track – Better is One Day – my favorite song on the CD. My thoughts drifted towards Heaven and worshipping Jesus there.
I love how the writer in Psalm 84:10 expresses it:
As I was sitting in the drive thru at Starbucks my heart skipped a beat at the thought of being in Jesus’ presence. I was filled with excitement at the joy that will be that day.
I was at a doctor’s appointment today and was dealing with some internal discontentedness while I waited to be seen. The good thing was I recognized I was being discontent and immediately started praying that God would give me peace and take away the discontentment. As I sat there I realized that this is something I have to continually surrender to Him on. It isn’t something that I can turn to Him and say, “I’m handing this over to you. You got it? Good.” and move on. There are things that have happened in my life that are that way, but this isn’t.
I know that when it is His will He will move. My job is to trust, and wait patiently and expectantly. I have come a long way from where I once stood with this thing, but constant surrender is going to be on the agenda until He accomplishes it.
I have felt so helpless lately. It started a while ago seeing images of precious people living on nothing just trying to get by.
It came roaring at me two weeks ago with the earthquake in Haiti. The images of poverty stricken, broken people floated before my eyes. I didn’t close the websites or stop reading the Tweets because I wanted to look.
Last Sunday at church God literally wrecked me. Our pastor decided to forgo communion after the teaching and allow people to pray for Haiti while worship was led. We watched this video done by Pastors Mark Driscoll & James McDonald who went to Haiti to help churches just days after the earthquake. Within seconds of the video starting I was crying. I hadn’t cried for Haiti yet. All I could do the rest of the service was cry and plead to God to save: spiritually and physically.
It isn’t just Haiti though. It’s all children and families that are in devastating poverty. That is what breaks my heart. I want to argue with God and ask Him why are you allowing this to happen to your creation. Why are you allowing the flesh and blood you wove together to be eaten away by diseases and malnutrition?
Today Shawn showed me pictures that Tony Morgan Tweeted from his trip to Burkina Faso through Compassion. All I wanted to do besides cry for these children, was bring them into my home and take care of them. Love them.
I know it isn’t an accident that God has placed these feelings in my heart. I’ve pleaded with Him over and over to break my heart for the things that break His. This is an answer to prayer. Yet, I still feel so helpless. We sponsor our precious, beautiful little Nikita in India and fully plan on sponsoring more in the future. Yet, I still feel so helpless. I pray. We donate to Haiti, and yet… I feel like there is so much more I could do and don’t know how or what.
I just want to be open to what He has for Shawn and I. I guess my feeling helpless means I just lean on Him all that much more and He’ll be the work in me that moves my hands the way they need to be moved.
In the light of tragedies we always seem to understand just how blessed we are by God. My heart has been exceptionally thankful lately. Last night we had a tremendous storm here in Phoenix. We got an inch of rain over night. As I got ready for bed I listened to the downpour that was occurring and could only thank God that I have a house with four walls and roof that doesn’t leak. I wasn’t out on the street trying to find a semi dry, warm place to sleep. I was about to crawl into my dry comfy bed with four layers of blankets. I haven’t lost everything that was really nothing to begin with. We are blessed.
Take away the superficial stuff your thankful for. When you get down to the nitty gritty what does your heart cry out to God in praises of thanksgiving?
Here are some of mine:
1. My salvation and the undeserved grace and mercy God has given me.
2. I have a home. Thousands don’t have a place to sleep at night except a dirty corner in the street (if they’re lucky).
3. I have a job. Again many don’t. I’ve been blessed with a job I really like. My co-workers can drive me batty but that’s part of having a job.
4. My husband. After nearly nine years (in May) of marriage my husband loves my more than he did nine years ago. With all my faults, my car accidents, my yelling at him it is apparent he’s fallen more in love with me and I with him.
Your turn…
Psalm 138:1 – 3 (NLT)
I give you thanks, O Lord , with all my heart;
I will sing your praises before the gods.
I bow before your holy Temple as I worship.
I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness;
for your promises are backed
by all the honor of your name.
As soon as I pray, you answer me;
you encourage me by giving me strength.
A few thoughts on my prayer to live more missionally this year.
Probably about two years ago Shawn and I started learning about Missiology and living missionally. It was a new concept for the both of us. In a nut shell, missional living means you live as a missionary to the community you live and work in. No longer did being a missionary mean you moved to Africa (or another third world country). Needless to say I’m still learning.
My biggest obstacle is really myself. 1. obviously getting rid of my pride, but also 2. the personality that God made me with. I am an extremely introverted person. Going up and talking to people – even those I know – is extremely difficult. So engaging strangers who need to be loved on in conversations about life is rather difficult.
I’ve started praying in this way about this:
Lord, you created me and designed me including my personality and the introvertedness. You wrote these into my DNA knowing that today I would be challenged to reach out and love and engage people. Please show me how to do this despite what I view as hurdles.
It’s pretty much the only thing I know to say. All I know is God has sent me to love people He loves, He will enable me to do it.
If you struggle with being introverted and engaging people how do you overcome your fears? I’d love any insights and of course prayers.
Missio Vitam – Latin for Sent Life
I once heard someone say that you shouldn’t yell at your spouse unless the house is on fire. Well, unfortunately the house wasn’t on fire, it wasn’t flooding, in fact there was no sense of danger at all. I just blew it.
As I started to come down I started thinking. I’ve known that I fight like my mom. I erupt. I try to have a civil discussion and then all my frustrations, all my defenses come spewing out. I also learned something else about myself. Of the “Five Languages of Love” I am definitely Affirmation. When my husband and I are having a discussion/fight I take things he says out of context and run with them. Next thing I know I feeling like a failure, where that is never (and would never be) his intention or thought. Regardless if the way I fight is nature (the personality God designed me with) or nurture (learning from my mom) if I lash out in anger it is sin. I need to learn how to deal with it. It isn’t healthy for me or my relationships.
