“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  (Isaiah 55: 8,9)

 

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,” (Luke 4: 1)

 

I have this routine every morning that’s unwavering.  Its mostly unwavering because I’m not really ‘good’ in the morning.  I don’t sleep very well at night so there are very few mornings that I ‘Rise and Shine’ like my Dad used to tell me to do.  My routine is this:  Hugh’s alarm goes off.  I ignore Hugh’s alarm and snuggle further under the covers.  Hugh gets up, makes coffee and goes to shower and dress.  The dog wakes me up with urgency because she needs to be let outside to do her business.  I stumble downstairs in my bathrobe, let the dog out, let the dog in, and then pour myself a cup of coffee (that Hugh made, of course, because the organization to make coffee in the morning eludes me unless I’ve had my coffee!)  in the biggest mug I can find (it still is only one cup, right!!! )(Holy run-on sentence, Batman.  But it really speaks to how I think at that time) .  Then I sit down to a tiny bit of prayer time (I use Lectio 365 – it’s a free app that you can download), drink my coffee, spill my coffee, and then log on to Twitter.

 

Logging on to Twitter is almost like logging into a new dimension.  I go from being a sleepy Lynne in my bathrobe and drinking coffee (and spilling coffee) to being a world traveler with opinions on all sorts of politics and the machinations of our leaders across the Globe.  I can check into AP News and see what’s happening in the Ukraine, and then in less that 280 characters go and find out what’s happening in Costa Rica (where I was born), or Florida (where one of my sibling’s lives) are even the latest from the United Church.  I can check in on some of my favourite authors and researchers, colleagues and friends without having to change out of my jammies and bathrobe; or even having to comb my hair.   I am, all of a sudden, bigger and more than I was a brief 5 minutes earlier when I was spilling coffee down in my lap.

 

But as wonderful as this Twitter dimension is – it comes with a whole lot of less-than-wonderful.  It comes with anxiety.  It comes with a lack of focus.  It even comes with demands on time and energy.  It’s a wilderness place.  A place that can be aimless and soul destroying.  I have power and knowledge, but I don’t really.  I’m not really travelling the world.  I’m not really checking in on authors and researchers that I’ve never met.  I’m not even really checking in on colleagues and friends.  I have been led into this wilderness by the Spirit, but I’m wandering there being ‘tempted by the Devil’ (as the Luke 4 passage goes on to say).

 

I have considered giving up Twitter for Lent.  I know a lot of my colleagues give up social media for Lent.  I did do that one year; it sure isn’t an easy discipline.  But I’m torn. Because I do see all of what Twitter (and Social media in general) can do that is good; is life enhancing – and can be a place where we are allowed to see and experience life beyond letting the dog out and spilling coffee down our bathrobes.  But its also a place that where we can wander; where we can be tempted; and where we can lose ourselves and our souls.

So – my Bethel peeps – I think what I’m going to aim for this Lent is to view Twitter, knowing that the key to not wandering there is to look for God’s thoughts rather than the temptations.  The thoughts that are higher than Twitter.  The thoughts that are more than the temptations that are thrown in front of us; Temptations of indulgence, of power and of self-preservation.  (O.k. to understand where I was going with this last thought you actually have to read the whole of the Luke 4 passage – or remember it from your Sunday School days).  The way out of the Twitter wilderness is to be led out by God.

 

And really, the way out of any wilderness is to be led by God.  Right!

 

Blessings today, and remember you are Loved.

Rev. Lynne

(P.S. Pic today is of the ‘wilderness’ outside of the office.  Goodness I’m tired of snow!)