Posts Tagged ‘social media’

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A Strange Twitter Conversation

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

twitter-conversationI had a strange Twitter conversation with my husband the other day. This is how it went:

“I just purged my Twitter. I looked at each person, to see if they were following me back or not. And I was shocked to find that Jesus unfollowed me on Twitter. I just find that disturbing.”

“Jesus is on Twitter?” my husband asked me.

“Well, it was His face. It was called All About Jesus or something. He must have dumped lots of people to continue following more people so that his followers would increase. That doesn’t seem like Jesus at all. He didn’t even want to have a relationship. He didn’t interact with anyone. It was quite sad really.”

“If Jesus was on Twitter, He wouldn’t need to follow anyone. Everyone would follow Him,” my husband answered.

“That’s true,” I said.

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The People on Facebook are Real (Synchronized Prayer)

Monday, May 14th, 2012

synchronized-prayerAre the people on Facebook real? I’ve had so many people tell me that virtual friends aren’t real people. Well, I have a Facebook friend that I’ve never met. She lives in an exotic country I’ve never visited. But one day she was going through a crisis in her life and was asking prayer over Facebook. I began praying for her every day.

Suddenly God woke me up in the middle of the night to pray fervently for her; then I went back to sleep. The next day I told her on Facebook that God woke me up to pray for her, and another Facebook friend said God had woken her up at the same exact time. The odds that this would happen is impossible. This woman I was praying for was making a major life decision at the exact moment we were praying, and since the country she lived in was on the other side of the world, God used two American women to pray for her in the middle of the night by waking us up. We had synchronized prayer. The woman we prayed for decided to recommit her life to Christ, after having gone through an agonizing decision.

You see, God considers my Facebook friend a real person, or He wouldn’t have used me spiritually in her life.

This is not to justify spending hours upon hours on Facebook, neglecting the flesh and blood people in our lives, especially our spouses and children. Facebook can be idolatry just like anything else. The key is to ask God what you should be doing at each moment. If you feel guilty that you’re not doing something, for heaven’s sake, get up and go do the thing that you know you should be doing.

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The Joy Dare

Friday, March 30th, 2012

the-joy-dareAt the homeschool Moms’ Night Out a month ago, a woman handed out pages from Anne Voskamp’s “The Joy Dare,” based on her book One Thousand Gifts. It was a list that would help people to find joy in everyday things. You were supposed to list 3 things you were thankful for each day, to come up with a grand total of 1,000 gifts from God in the year 2012. I went ahead and took the challenge for just one month, posting on Twitter once or twice a day what I was grateful for. This one month made a difference in how I look for things to take joy in, that I probably would never have thought of.

Many of the items on her list were unusual, like “3 gifts behind a door.” I had to think about that for several days before I came up with a hot shower, my back porch, and antique books. I don’t take hot showers for granted because having grown up in Guatemala, for many years we had to heat up water on the stove in pots just to bathe. So I’m grateful whenever I can enjoy a hot shower. My back porch was a gift from God, too. It was decaying and rotten, and God provided miraculously for us to replace our deck a couple of years ago. (You can read that story about God’s provision here.) And when I lived in England, I always looked at leather bound antique books of poetry, which were almost always behind a glass door. I own six of these antique books (if I was rich, I would have a huge collection), and I forgot all about them until I had to think of something behind a door that I was grateful for.

I was also stumped with “3 gifts found in giving/serving.” I thought long and hard about it, and I answered “the expression in the other person’s eyes, fulfillment, the Holy Spirit loving through me.” When God supernaturally loves someone through me, I feel such a sense of joy that I can’t describe it.

The last one I did was “3 gifts hard to give thanks for,” and I wrote “suffering, lack of money, and growing older.” These are three things that have been blessings in my life, so I’ve praised God for them many times, even though it’s hard. James (from Scripture) tells us to count it all joy when we suffer, because through it God produces endurance in our lives, and I can bear witness that this is true. My lack of money for so many years has made me more dependent on God and caused me to see miraculous answered prayer for provision, kisses from God that would never have occurred if I had all the money I needed. And then growing older has given me perspective on life and has caused me to pay attention to what matters the most in life, because my remaining days are few compared to when I was younger.

The reason I stopped is that I’m poetic and philosophical, and this list was consuming my mind. I found that I was thinking about it sometimes in the middle of the night. For this reason I quit. But I enjoyed it while it lasted, because my tweets on Twitter were poetic, deep, and spiritual, and that represents who I am. It was as if I was writing a short poem daily, in less than 140 characters. If you want to read my entire list (which consists of 126 things I am grateful for), you can read them all on my Twitter (SusanCEvans).

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Scared of Facebook (Part 2)

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

scared-of-facebook-2When I joined Facebook last April, I did it with fear and trepidation, knowing it had been idolatry for me in the past. Several things made it idolatry:

  1. I considered it more fun than spending time with God.
  2. I spent time on Facebook instead of spending time with my husband when he was home.
  3. I spent well over an hour a day on Facebook, so it swallowed up my time.

Because I love God and my husband more than life itself, I’m holding myself accountable. I promised my husband it would not be the same this time; that if I joined Facebook again, I wouldn’t let myself get swallowed up in it like a black hole. So now I have come to the end of the year, which is a time for reflection. Has Facebook been idolatry for me? Even though I have spent an enormous amount of time on Facebook this year, the answer is, unbelievably, “no.”

Do I look forward to Facebook more than I look forward to spending time with God? Does it cause me to speed up my prayers like it did that first day? The answer is no. I love my time with God way more than Facebook.

Do I spend time on Facebook instead of being with my husband? At first I made myself the rule to be off the computer whenever my husband was home. That way Facebook would never interfere with my marriage. But then guess what? My husband got me a cell phone with a connection to Facebook. He got himself a cell phone, too. Now picture this: my husband and I are sitting quietly on the couch on any given evening. My husband has his cell phone out and is showing me some silly YouTube video. Or he’s playing Angry Birds or some other inane game, to unwind from work so that he can sleep. I WANT my husband to unwind, so I highly support anything that helps him to relax and unwind.

But this now puts me in the position of sitting with my husband, with him playing on his phone, and me doing nothing. If I continue to do nothing, my husband will feel a false guilt for unwinding instead of “spending time with me,” so I get out my cell phone and check Facebook. My husband is not bothered by my sitting beside him and looking at my Facebook page while he’s playing Angry Birds or whatever. We are both happy. I pray for my Facebook friends, encouraging them in Christ, and developing deeper friendships. This is not sin.

I probably spend MORE time on Facebook now than I did back when it was idolatry. It’s because when I’m at the checkout line at the grocery store (alone), instead of just wasting time standing there, I check Facebook and encourage other human beings. It is good use of time.

And yet I must pause. I could easily be blind to my own sin. I must continuously check my heart and make sure that my priorities are straight. I haven’t even mentioned that I’m trying to run a business that God put on my heart to start, and the greatest amount of traffic for my blog and website comes from Facebook, because I truly love the people there. I read their stuff and watch the videos they post and care about what they think and pray for them. They’re real people, and I love them for real.

So is Facebook idolatry for me? I was off Facebook for three months in the summer, and I had no withdrawal symptoms. That indicates no addiction. But to be honest, it’s an ongoing struggle because I do enjoy it, and anything in my life that I enjoy can become idolatry if I don’t keep it in check. So I must continuously give it back over to God and pray that I will bring glory to Him with however much time I spend on it.

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You Know You’re a Newbie to Twitter When… (Twitter Humor)

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

twitter-humorYou Know You’re a Newbie to Twitter When…

  1. You’re invited to a Twitter party, but no one tells you to sign into Tweetchat. So you have no idea how to get in. Nope. There’s no door to knock on to get into this party.
  2. Once you find Tweetchat, you type the name and press “Go” instead of “Sign in.” This will result in you feeling like you are a fly on the wall, able to observe, but not able to participate.
  3. The chat looks frozen until you suddenly get deluged by a waterfall of new comments. You will need to change how many seconds to wait before seeing the comments. The default option is, for some reason, unacceptable, even though Twitter has put this as the default.
  4. You feel dizzy and slightly seasick as you try to read people’s unintelligible tweets.
  5. It feels like a deep, dark cave where you are lost, and this feeling is only intensified by the constant echoing. (It’s called retweeting, and for some reason people retweet everything over and over, even though you heard them perfectly well the first time.)
  6. Many conversations are happening at the same time, kind of like schizophrenia might sound in your head, but it’s typed out nice and neatly.
  7. There are so many people in the room, but you feel completely alone.
  8. Unlike any other party, there is an eerie silence…
  9. You see someone trying to talk to you, but then the comment gets pushed down so far, you can never find it again. You sigh and go up to the top of the pile of comments, because you’re missing out on the questions.
  10. People start passing around virtual trays of brownies, and your seasick stomach starts to growl as you realize that maybe it’s time to go home now. Oh, wait. I AM home. You close the Twitter window, and the madness is over…

(SusanCEvans on Twitter)

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Virtual or Real? (Part 2)

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

virtual-or-real-2Being on the computer is not necessarily sin any more than reading a book is sin. People go overboard on book reading and forget to spend time with their children. Then they regret their lives just as much as a computer junky when all is said and done. Book reading can be idolatry just as much as the computer can be. Anything that keeps us from doing what God wants us to do is idolatry.

I keep hearing people talk about balance, but that’s wrong. It’s not about balance. Do you think that if God has called a woman to have an online business, that she should spend an equal amount of time homeschooling her kids, and the same amount of time on business? No, each day is different.

It’s not about balance, it’s about abiding. If we are sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in our lives, we will know what we should be doing every moment of every day. Abide in Christ. Yield to God and ask Him what to do each moment.

My problem is distraction. God might prompt me to get onto the computer, and I write this deep spiritual article that surprises me and convicts me. But then other things on the computer call my attention, and without thinking, I go off into cyberspace. That is my downfall. That is where my time wastage occurs. Yet even then, I sometimes stumble upon a blog where I’m able to spiritually encourage another mom, and God uses it anyway. But that’s not to justify my distraction. It’s to say that the line is fuzzy, and maybe I was supposed to hop around in cyberspace, or maybe that God used it for my good and His glory despite the fact that I had my priorities wrong.

You know, like the times when you sin by yelling at your kid. But then you go back and apologize, and you end up having a deep spiritual conversation that could never have occurred had you not yelled in the first place. Yeah, like that.

The other thing is, I’ve known homeschool moms who hover over their children where they don’t have any space to breathe. If I spent all my days hovering over my children every moment, that would not serve them well. Creativity is developed through solitude, and so are deep thoughts. Children need down time. They need time that is not directed at every moment by their parents.

So when all is said and done, am I living the virtual life or the real life? The answer is both. Because behind my virtual life lies real people. I pray for the people on Facebook. I hurt for them. Those people are real. When I give them encouragement, they are lifted up. My time on the computer is not worthless.

What I must remember is that I must reel myself in, and check in with God from time to time. I can ask, “What do I need to be doing right now?” and expect an answer. Then and only then will I be able to live the way I ought to live and have no regrets.

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Virtual or Real? (Part 1)

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

virtual-or-realI had a nightmare a couple of nights ago that my daughter got thrown off a horse and died. I screamed and ran over to where she was, covered in blood. Her body was in a position where she couldn’t possibly be alive. I felt unspeakable pain; then I abruptly woke up.

I splashed my face with cold water, and walked into the kitchen to make coffee. I looked through the dining room door to my six-year-old daughter, who was diligently doing her math, dressed in her night gown. She’s always the first one up.

But today I stopped. I drank in the moment. She’s alive. She’s still small. I haven’t missed anything. I walked over to her, hugged her tightly, and kissed her head.

Then I walked away, turned on the computer, and posted my blog entry for the day. I went to post it on Facebook, and there I saw my friends and what they were doing. Soon I was drawn in…

Half an hour later I realized I hadn’t had my coffee, so I walked back into the kitchen to pour it. Then I walked straight back to the computer.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next day I watched the movie “Secretariat,” which I had found on DVD at the library. My kids were munching popcorn as they watched the horses racing. But what struck me the most was an off-handed moment at a party, where the husband dances with his daughter who is all grown up now. And I saw my daughter grown up, and I started bawling that I had missed it.

My daughter is still six. She was cuddled up beside me, wondering why my eyes were watering, but I don’t want to miss her life, or the lives of my sons. I want to live.

I want to LIVE.

I don’t want to be sucked into the virtual world, the world that is online. Yes, God has called me to it, and He keeps putting things on my heart to write about. And yet where is the limit? Where is the boundary? How do I remind myself… Look, my kids are alive… My kids are here… I want to be present with them, to be living in the moment.

One of my sons was praying in the dark tonight, and I suddenly came up with the title “Virtual or Real?” I wanted to write it down before I forgot. But another son wanted to pray. I’m ashamed to say it, but I told my son, “God can hear you. Go ahead and pray without me. I need to write something down.” I closed the door and walked away.

I stopped halfway up the stairs and screamed in my soul, “No! This is exactly what I’m talking about!” In the dark, I ran back to my sons’ bedroom and opened the door.

“Are you still praying?”

“Yes,” said my son, and he continued his prayer. As soon as he finished, I said good night and shut the door. I paused and stared into the darkness.

(Stay tuned for part 2…)

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Facebook Blunders

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

facebook-blunders I’ve been on Facebook barely two weeks, and I’ve already made two Facebook blunders. First, I thought my English teacher from high school was friending me, and I told her that I was now a writer. She looked exactly the same as I remembered her over 20 years ago, but “your husband looks old,” I said. Well, come to find out the next day when I looked at the bottom of her profile page, it said “Male.” This meant that it was my Bible teacher and not my English teacher, and I had just insulted him! (The profile picture included both of them, with her face being prominent.) I let a day go by, not knowing what to do. Then I got up the guts to grovel, so I sent him a message. Thankfully, I remembered that he had been a humorous teacher, so he probably got a good laugh out of the whole thing.

The other blunder was much bigger. Someone had clicked that they “liked” my fan page. (It’s on the right-hand sidebar of my blog.) Anyone who enjoys my website and blog enjoys me. So of course I wanted to be her friend. Well, when I looked at her profile, I stopped dead in my tracks. Her profile was nearly identical to an American that I dated while I was in England. I thought to myself, I wonder if he’s stalking me and posing as a woman who likes my blog. I felt uneasy, not knowing if I should unfriend this person. But if it was a girl, and she loved my soul (I mean my blog) I wanted to have her in my life. I’m a public figure, after all, and I like making new friends.

Well, she posted something so unbelievable that I commented, “I find this hard to believe.” There was crack, a prostitute, steak, shrimp, human dung, and a tornado, and all of these things happened in one day. So I couldn’t help but comment. (Keep in mind she reads my blog about homeschooling.)

She immediately sent me a private message. She was hurt that I basically called her a liar in front of all of her friends. The way she spoke was definitely girly, bordering on PMS. (I often speak this way myself, being a girl, so this is not an insult.) That was definitely not the guy I knew in England (the jerk from the blog entry “My Love Story, Part 1″). After reading all of her long messages, I loved her and I felt so bad. I didn’t know what to say. I told her I was wrong, and that I was so sorry. Then I told her that I was frieked out about her profile, that matched this guy I used to know. I asked her if she knew him. She said, “Yes!! Oh my gosh!! I could have told you he was a jerk.” She gave me more information, and I knew that she used to know him, because there was no way she would know about his arrogance, his music (he was a musician), etc. By the end of the conversation, I felt like I had finally made things right. Apparently this woman’s husband works in a bad part of town where he gets propositioned by prostitutes, crack addicts, and apparently steps in human poop. And yes, a tornado hit on the same day. That was confirmed by the news. Finally her story made sense.

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