Sharing Something worth Sharing

One of my friends posted John Wesley’s Holy Club Questions today on Facebook.  I had not read them recently and they instantly brought me right back to my UM Polity and Doctrine course in seminary at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri.  It was an amazing moment of memory and connection.

If you are not familiar with them, here they are:

• Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
• Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
• Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
• Can I be trusted?
• Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
• Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
• Did the Bible live in me today?
• Do I give it time to speak to me every day?
• Am I enjoying prayer?
• When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
• Do I pray about the money I spend?
• Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
• Do I disobey God in anything?
• Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
• Am I defeated in any part of my life?
• Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
• How do I spend my spare time?
• Am I proud?
• Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
• Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
• Do I grumble or complain constantly?
• Is Christ real to me?

Several of these jumped out at me, but the one that constantly brings me up short asks, “When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?” 

Sharing something “important” in our lives takes place hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of times, on Twitter and Facebook every minute of the day.  People tweet what they are doing in 140 characters or less even if it seems trivial or pointless to others.  People update their status on Facebook whether it is about an awesome cup of coffee, a gripe about their job, or a life changing event.  We sit around dinner tables at home and in restaurants telling others about things that we did during that particular day.  Sharing daily events happens all the time.

But faith is something we could be sharing more often than most of us currently are.  The question asks, simply, are your talking about your faith with others?  And more pointedly, when was the last time you did so?

My faith is vital to who I am.  Living my faith is a daily activity.  Walking with God is essential to my life.  Being part of a community of faith is my lifeblood.  Taking time to pray is a daily ritual.  Being a servant for justice makes my faith walk and talk in the world.  Following the example of Jesus is something I strive to do always.

But again, Wesley asks, “When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?”  For me it’s easy.  I had a talk about my faith on the plane coming back from Texas earlier this month after my seatmate asked what I do for a living and got curious.  But before that - and outside of the classroom or pulpit - it has been a while. And I need to be better about that.

Sharing our faith is an important part of our lives as Christians.  But we often fail to do so.

Why?  Fear, lack of experience, discomfort sharing personal faith stories, lack of relationships with those who we could share with, anxiety about sharing too much, tensions in our own faith lives, and many others keep us from sharing our faith.

Sharing our faith starts with creating relationships – in our work places, in our communities, in our families, in our social networks, etc.  Being ourselves and sharing who we are as people of faith can be as simple as sharing a prayer on Twitter or Facebook, as personal as talking about our church or faith community with friends, or as profound as bringing another person to faith through our words and witness.

We have to start somewhere.  So this week … share your faith with others.  Do it in subtle, simple ways to gain confidence … then you will feel even more comfortable sharing your faith story with others down the line.

Sharing has to start sometime.  What better time than now?

Why Does My Technology Hate Me?

I am on my 4^th Kindle since Christmas 2010.  Some have crashed on their own and one because I dropped it.  And so I sat waiting as each one was shipped out by Amazon to me one by one.  My smartphone has been replaced at least once.  And it always required some sort of wait until the new one arrived.  My Plasma TV went out last month and since it was barely out of warranty, Samsung replaced it for a small exchange fee.  We sat and watched a little bitty TV for over a week waiting for the new one.  I have already had to have Dell replace a dud laptop once.  Now my new laptop (the replacement I got from them in November of 2010) is heating up and acting strange.  I got a box from Dell today for me to ship it off for service.  My technology woes are legendary on my Facebook page.  Every time I post something about a tech issue – folks comment that technology and I do not seem to mix.  But we have to.

My job is to teach young ministers to preach, to engage social media in their ministries, and to utilize imagery in their multi-media sermon preparation.  I teach using PowerPoint and media displays.  So using technology is something that I do every single day – it is part of my working life.  Add to that my personal use of technology for Facebook, email, news, blogging, etc.  It seems that tech is a big part of my life. My phone keeps me connected and my TV helps to entertain me.  I read a LOT and have found my Kindle to be an amazing gift for ease of access to all kinds of books.  I am on my laptop almost every evening and sometimes during the day as well.  I need my tech.

But once again I will be without my laptop for a week to ten days.  I do not want to do it.  I know I have an old back up to use but it makes me nervous that I might be disconnected for a while.  Or that I might be connected slowly … that my old computer will be so slow it may not be worth being online at all. 

When I discovered how nervous I was feeling about sending my computer off again – I had to stop and think about my addiction to tech.  I feel like I need to check my Facebook, process my email, and read friends’ blog posts on a regular basis.  I don’t think I am alone in this.  Many people are connected too much to their technology today.  Families sit at dinner and never speak as they play games and surf on their mobile devices.  Teens sit in the same room and text each other rather than risk being overheard by others.  Parents sit at their computers and fail to be there for their kids.  Not everyone is like this – but it is easy to get sucked into the cycle of gadget addiction.

So maybe this imposed vacation from my laptop will be good for me.  And maybe it will drive me over the edge.  Either way – it seems I need it.

Melting Miles

In the last week I have Skyped with family in Texas, talked on the phone with a pastor friend in North Carolina, messaged/chatted with a good friend in California, kept up with family in Tornado Alley via Facebook, uploaded student sermons to a limited access YouTube account so they could see them and share them with friends/family, received an update from a former student by email about their approval for ordination, and connected to an old friend by seeing their retweet of a message on Twitter.  Yesterday, my friend in Ohio was driving in Michigan and got lost – she called me and I went on my laptop to Google the address she was searching for, then mapped her route and got her to her appointment with turn-by-turn directions on the phone.  It was a hoot.  We laughed about it until I almost cried.

Sometimes living in a state far from family and longtime friends is tough.  When our son had an end of the year school concert – I wanted my parents (his grandparents) here.  When my spouse had a medical test—I wanted their mom to be here.   When I was installed as a professor at my seminary—I wanted my best friends and family here.  When my friend needed me to help them through a crisis—I wanted to be with them to hold their hand.   Unfortunately, the miles kept all of us away from one another physically. 

There are times when the miles seem insurmountable.  It seems like I am missing my niece’s lives as they graduate and play sports that I am not there to see.  It seems like my friends are constantly experiencing things that I would love to witness and be there for.  It seems like the miles are a gulf when holiday after holiday I am separated from those I love.   But then there are those amazing times when they seem to melt away.   I am reminded that connections are connections – whether emotional, physical or psychological.  

Amazingly, my parents saw my son’s concert via Flip, Facebook, and Youtube.  My spouse’s mom got a call minutes after the positive medical test came back.  And pictures of my installation popped up almost immediately after the event on a seminary blog.  My friend got to her lunch appointment almost on time.  And my hurting friend felt relief talking to me on the phone.  None of these situations were completely the same as they would be together, but it felt so good to have these moments.   I really felt a personal and emotional connection in all of them.

Modern technology makes it possible to witness the amazing header scored in a state soccer game by my niece, to send video of my son’s concert far away, to talk to my hurting friend many states away, to guide my friend to her appointment, and to visit with my folks whenever I want and see them on Skype while we talk. 

But connections are more that these technological moments – I am connected to them by personal experiences, lasting memories, amazing interactions over a number of years, and in so many other ways.  Some I am connected to by blood and others are family and friends by choice.  So whether I talk to them personally or see them in person – the connections are still there, still real, and still important.  I am connected to them by faith and by a God who loves us all.  I am connected as we are a family of faith –committed to each other in ways no distance can cancel out. 

We are connected … and I thank God for those connections every day of my life.