Whenever I chance to visit the micro-blogging site twitter, I find that a lot of people follow people, dead or alive, so long as they have something meaningful to say in a punchy, one-sentence form. I'm not convinced yet and my blog is sure to carry on for a good old bit.
I can understand the success of Twitter with the emergence of smartphones and the need for media to be smaller and more to the point as a result. It's far easier to check up on the world if we don't have to read a sprawling scrolling article on a mobile phone, if instead we can get a headline of the situations around us. I think that's it - what we get now is the headlines, of people and other subjects. Some things are explainable in this format. In Christianity key truths can be demonstrated in this way. Often my friends' tweets are quotes from well known Christians old and new, who are able to capture the truth of Jesus in such a format. There are of course, other subjects that, if we were to assess it through just one sentence, we would miss out understanding entirely. People can also use this to their advantage on twitter. If we misunderstand a person to the point that it makes someone sound funny, clever or popular, then for them it comes as a great benefit.
My failing is that I quickly dismiss quotes where they genuinely are helpful pieces of advice. Of course, I have to be discerning when seeing what people out there have written. One of the biggest ones is wisdom - I find myself disassociating myself with quotes because they are so disposable, even if they contain great wisdom. I miss out on nuggets for a few reasons and these are things I know in my heart I need to address;
1. Sometimes it's a bit of a minefield with Christians and posts, because so much of what is said, I try to find if there's anything in it that reminds me of what the Bible says. If I find nothing that relates it to what the Bible says, I'm quick to dismiss it - and I have a feeling that may not be the best approach. Though it's a great safeguard against trash and legalism, it does over-limit the influence godly people (and other people) can have in my life. After all, the sayings of Proverbs are as likely to be in someone's heart regardless of whether they know and trust God or not. Secular advice can at times be just as valuable as biblical truth, under the common grace of God.
E.g.
"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings,
so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for." - Socrates
When I see this, it reminds me of what it must have been like for the
early church pre- Paul's letters. What those churches strived to gain (and making mistakes in the process) is
something that can come us to us as hindsight's instruction through
Paul to us today, so that we may not have to go through what they did.
2. Reading vs action. The idea of condemnation via just reading something and not acting upon it. A lot of the advice out there on twitter carries instructional emphasis, so to do not Do or to not Be what it prescribes straight away can hit like a wave of futility when reading more. Condemnation doesn't especially care that becoming like Jesus is a gradual process, and if the results aren't eminent then the enemy can use that to try and stop us edifying ourselves with more wisdom (and also scripture). I know he uses that on me. Ever heard the phrase "you are what you eat"? I think I've touched on it before with other blog entries, but even if the results from taking in scripture and wisdom aren't there immediately, the solution isn't then to stop feeding ourselves entirely, but that isn't always my response. The reality is we carry on to keep living.
