Part of my reluctance was that I felt so much of what I was reading was boring, inane, and a real waste of time. Even high school friends I was trying to keep up with via Facebook weren't letting me look into their real lives, they were simply posting about what they had for breakfast, or that they wanted my help in their Farmville game, or were simply repeating the meme of the week.
I felt like that wasn't what I wanted out of my limited internet time, and so I opted against doing the same. If the world wanted to cut out any significant conversation, and limit themselves to 140 characters, they didn't have to take me along with them.
But I have become convicted recently of the reality of social media, and how ignoring it completely cuts me out of a large portion of potential interaction. At the end of Colossians, Paul says "Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." Two things. One, we need to walk in wisdom toward outsiders, and not wait for them to come to us. That may very well mean (gasp) tweeting. Two, maybe 140 characters currently defines the "best use of the time."
The challenge is to say something worthwhile, but to say it succinctly, and in a way that draws people in. Piper said it this way in his blog:
Tweets do not diminish my ability to have a complete thought, they demand it. That’s what a Tweet is—a thought that is complete enough to press some God-focused truth into someone’s consciousness. The aim is to pack much into little. Big into small. Great into ordinary. Truth into language. God into space and time. This kind of tweeting does not distract from thinking. It demands thinking.
If I did not know a great God and a great Savior and a great Life and a great Plan, I would not bother writing Tweets—or books. But if God can be spoken of meaningfully in a 300 page book, he can also be spoken of in a 30-minute sermon, and a three line Tweet....
Tweeting is to preaching what the book of Proverbs is to the book of Romans.
My hope is to use these opportunities to walk in wisdom, to share my thoughts, make the best use of the time, and to honor God along the way. If you'd like to interact in that kind of forum, feel free to follow me. We can travel this strange road together. I can't promise it will all be enlightening or wise in any way, and you may get more personal stuff than you like. And if you look at my history, you might not find what you're looking for. After all, I'm just feeling this out myself. But I can promise you one thing: No Farmville requests.
