I remember when I was in middle school and the coolest thing to do was write on your “free open diary.”
At that time in my life I didn’t know what a “blog” was or how to write for content I just knew that it’s what my friends did and so then I must too. In high school it turned to xanga, then to myspace, then facebook, now it seems to have a blog or a twitter isn’t anything special. Most of my entries tended to be a short paragraph about the mediocre events of my life spiced with the word amazing and riddled with grammar and spelling errors(some things don’t change).
“wow so IDIOT RYAN dropped his phone in the ocean…….. but other then that I had a fun day with Micah Cassie and Chris at the Beach… so yeah ill see you all in a few days with an awesome sunburn…” Actual entry on my xanga from 2004
In fact most of my friends/ family have some sort of social networking concoction at their reach.
Why is it that we find it necessary to have these expressions in our life?
I am, seemingly, constantly defending my twitter account. It never fails that when I bring out my blackberry in a store or at a park or in a meeting I get the question “what are you doing?” or my wife apologizes for me “Sorry, He’s just tweeting.”
You could only imagine the looks I get when I am tweeting…
But I can’t help it. something in me feels the need, and the urge to share (however insignificant) my thoughts/actions/encouragements with others. It is ingrained in me. I am on social network overload in my brain.
To dissect the reason why I feel that urge I ran across a familiar story. Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman at the well through their conversation Jesus offers forgiveness and salvation to a woman who felt undeserving. after the conversation however she does something familiar to all of us:
“The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, ’Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?’” John 4:28-29
So ingrained in us is our desire to tell others our story.
I ask myself, “why do I feel the need to use social networking?” and the answer is plain, there is a need in us to tell others good news, to share with others our struggle, to have others read our story.
All of us do it to an extent.
Now the crux is this: the story you share, shows who your author is.
The woman at the well shared of new life and a salvation she showed that Jesus has entered the story as her author… And I share about a cell phone being dropped in the ocean.
I ask you to look at your story, look at what you show others… who is your author?
Now, may you see that your story is one to share, may you find the author who can weave forgiveness, salvation and new life in you, and may you RUN back to the village and share your story.
2 Comments
September 30, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Ryan, great entry, ties into exactly the vein of focus I have come to in this past week, about how every action and word is significant, EVERYTHING matters, and that we hold such influence over others without even realizing it, down to the smallest detail of our daily actions. What do those actions reflect? What kind of influence do we provide? Very thought provoking and very true. KEEP WRITING- I miss your messages!!
September 30, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Interesting observations on the narrative character of existence.
To add to what you’ve stated above, Stanley Hauerwas states:
“Just as narrative is a crucial category for the knowledge of the self, so it is for our knowledge of God. ‘God,’ we must remember, is a common name, to which we can ascribe attributions only as we learn of God through a history. This, of course, follows from the basic theological claim that knowledge of God and knowledge of self are interdependent. But once the formal nature of this claim is fleshed out in terms of narrative, we see its implications for Christian life. Not only is knowledge of self tied to knowledge of God, but we know ourselves truthfully only when we know ourselves in relation to God. We know who we are only when we can place our selves–locate our stories–within God’s story.”