- flickr.com/photos/shanepope/2375499336
On Tuesday, June 7 I will have been writing this blog for five months. Today’s post will be #120 and I got to thinking that I must certainly be repeating myself by now. If this is the case, I heartily apologize. I don’t go back in my post list very often and I write what comes to mind on any given day.
Despite the fact that my teenage daughter gives me a hard time for doing so, I did a little checking on the stats for curlingupwithGod. In those five months there have been 9,800 visits to my site, many undoubtedly directed by a search for something which led them to me erroneously. The Footprints poem seems to be the most common search term which directs people here. I have no way of knowing whether these people actually stop and read something or just scan quickly for the lyrics and then head on their way. On my busiest day I had 245 visits which was really exciting! I have been thrilled to have people write me notes occasionally and with those and my responses I have 77 comments.
Every time I write a post I have the option of tagging which may lead people to the post. I didn’t do much of this at first, but have discovered how important it can be. WordPress keeps track of the most common tags and makes them available to choose rather than writing them in each time. I thought the list was pretty interesting. When I see it, the words I have used the most are actually in a bigger font.
Back to the title question, are we having fun yet? I know that I am enjoying the writing and any associated thinking and reflecting that is associated with that activity. Some days I will have several images or comments pop into my head which lead to posts and I have to type them in before I lose them. So far my feedback has been good and I’m assuming that for every person who goes to the trouble of writing a comment there are several who at least smile and nod at some point in their reading and that is great.
See you at 250 🙂
Posted in Reflections
Tagged Bible, blog, bully, change, choices, Christianity, church, cross, Easter, evangelism, facebook, faith, fashion, forgiveness, God, help, Holy Spirit, improvement, Jesus, justice, kindness, leadership, Lectionary, Lent, love, milestones, music, prayer, preaching, problems, promise, quiet, reflection, song, stress, students, survival, teachers, The Message//Remix:Solo, time, Twitter, worry
Today was Good Friday. Depending on the way you view the liturgical calendar Lent either ended last night or tomorrow, the day before Easter. This leads to my quandary of the day…do I go back on Facebook and Twitter?
If you count Sundays, I have not logged on to my FB and Twitter accounts now for 45 or 46 days. In some way I didn’t really miss it. I didn’t feel tempted to log on. I took them off my home page list on my browsers and my BlackBerry and I guess the old out-of-sight out-of-mind thing works. On the other hand I had many bouts of feeling isolated which I can only attribute to that lack of interaction which comes from at least keeping up with the doings of my friends.
Did I make use of the time I saved and the loss of distraction throughout Lent in order to spend more time in prayer, study and reflection on God? I did a really good job of it for a while at least. I did, as I planned, spend more time reading books and doing cross word puzzles. I completed my on-line course and prepared two services. I’m really glad I decided to make this sacrifice and it is really hard to believe it has really been so long.
How did you make out? Did you give something up for Lent? However we spent Lent, Sunday morning it is time to celebrate the risen Christ. Sing songs! Shout hosannas! Give thanks that God has given this amazing free gift to all of us!
Posted in Reflections
Tagged Bible, Christianity, distractions, Easter, facebook, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Lent, music, praise, prayer, reflection, sacrifice, thanks, Twitter, worship
If you have been following my blog for a while you may recall that I made the decision to give up the distractions of Face Book and Twitter for Lent. Last Sunday was the third Sunday of Lent, two more Lenten Sundays and we will be at Passion Week beginning with Palm Sunday. We are basically half-way to Easter and can begin to see the end of our fasts (not all fasts involve food and many people don’t give something up for Lent at all). I thought it was a good time to touch base.
I didn’t realize before that the primary use of my Black Berry was checking FB and Twitter, but I can go days without recharging it now. It isn’t very draining to check my email and blog stats and after that is done there isn’t any other reason to have the screen on.
So, has this change in my habit made a difference in the amount of time I have my focus on God? Yes and no.
I have done pretty well at keeping up with Bible reading and reflections and blog postings. I had time and focus for preparing a couple of services I led recently and for the course on church polity which I am taking. Less time with social-media distractions has led to more time spent on the crossword puzzle book I got for Christmas several years ago and more time spent hanging out with my kids watching TV. I’m not sure they are thrilled, but I need the social contact.
I am an extrovert in many ways. I gain my energy and strength from contact with other people, although I can be very quickly drained by negative contact. While I am with people at work all day, when I leave I only have one or two built-in social activities in my week. I now realize to what extent I have come to rely on social media to give me that feeling of connection with others. I have not yet concluded whether or not this is a good thing.
More quiet time has also given me time to run things over (and over) in my head. This is almost always a negative thing. One might think it was good, as solutions might be found that way, but it doesn’t tend to work that way for me. I am more likely to find solutions in discussion while in my head I just run around in circles.
Overall I would say that I’m doing ok with Lent this year. I’m not totally focused on the spiritual realm, but then meals need to be cooked and work done. I’m not sure if I will go back to my social media sites as much after Easter. It has been interesting to note that with no Twitter presence other than one post to announce my blog each day, I have been gaining followers in the past couple weeks. Maybe it is true that less is more?
Posted in Reflections
Tagged Bible, blog, Christianity, church, distractions, Easter, facebook, God, Jesus, leadership, Lent, Palm Sunday, prayer, preaching, reflection, social media, survival, Twitter
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Lent begins tomorrow and I am going to be off facebook until Easter. If you need to get in touch with me send me an email.
Earlier today I put the above note up on my Facebook page to let my friends know that I would be “away” from FB until after Easter. I then removed FB, Twitter and Goodreads from my home page tabs. I got this idea from a blog I read yesterday about Lent at http://denimdevotion.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/its-coming/ I have tried fasting for Lent in the past but I ended up getting sick so I am leery of doing that again. I liked this idea.
I’m obviously not eliminating computers altogether from my life for the time between tomorrow and Easter. I use my computer every day for work, for teaching, recording grades, recording attendance, etc. I am also taking an online course right now so I will need to be online and on the computer for that, and for doing my blog.
The point of “giving something up for Lent” is to move the focus from whatever clutter usually takes it and on to the word of God, and the life and ministry of Jesus. Of all the things that take my attention I think the computer, and especially social media, are the biggest. I even read the Bible online now. So I’ll dig out my real paper Bible, my pens and pencils, my books to read, and even my crossword puzzle books for the next five weeks.
Have you considered a change in focus for your Lenten season this year? When I was younger I remember kids saying they were giving up things like spinach (which they didn’t eat anyway) and thinking that it was a silly idea. So what distracts you? Don’t look for something that will make you suffer, that isn’t the point. Don’t choose something that will make it impossible to do your job or meet commitments that you need to meet. You may want to choose a little extravagance like that daily Starbucks coffee and put the money you save in your church offering plate or give it to a charity.
In the end, whether or not you give up something for the season, I pray that you have a blessed season of preparation for Holy Week!
Posted in Bible Study, Lectionary, Reflections
Tagged Bible, blog, Christianity, church, distractions, facebook, God, Goodreads, Jesus, Lent, reflection, Twitter
I have had this idea of finding a way to write the Bible in a series of 140 character Tweets for a while. In fact this draft has been on my wordpress dashboard since mid-February. The original plan was to have 140 characters per book of the Bible. This isn’t so hard for Job, or some other shorter books, but an amazing amount happens in some of the books. The next problem is that as soon as you add the book title you have used up a whole bunch of characters. Here were my first two tries…
Genesis
God made everything, humans sinned, we multiplied, we sinned, God drowned all but a few in a flood, God made covenant never to do that again.
Exodus
God’s peeps were slaves in Egypt. Moses led them into the desert, they sinned, wandered 40 yrs, God gave laws& food, led to promised land
After getting that far I thought perhaps a glossary of Tweet terms for the Bible would help. Maybe something like;
Bbl – bible, Gd or G – God, Jss or J – Jesus, HS – Holy Spirit, Isr – Israelites, S – sin, s/o – son of
It turns out this is as far as I need to go. Yesterday I received a note through Twitter suggesting I follow @the140bible which is one persons attempt to compose a Tweet for every chapter of the Bible. It shows that lots of people are thinking along the same lines and at least one went ahead and did it!
The 140 Bible
@The140Bible
For the next several months, I will be attempting to translate every chapter in the Bible to 140 characters. Enjoy.
http://www.The140Bible.com
curlingupwithGod 