iPhone

iPhone is my new boyfriend. I haven't kicked Facebook to the curb or anything...actually, quite the contrary. Me, iPhone and Facebook are in a sort of open relationship. They know each other, they know I heart both of them and, thus far, they seem pretty ok with the whole thing. However, since iPhone and me are still in the first blush of our new relationship, he is getting a bit more of my time...but we do try to include Facebook, but well sometimes we just want to play Sudoku or take pictures of a box of strawberry Nerds with one grape in there, or search for cool new apps.

Don't feel too sorry for Facebook, though, iPhone allows me to take him with us wherever we go and check in whenever I feel like...or whenever Facebook demands my attention. So, for now, its working.

Now, if I could only get them to talk to Canon, my camera...

Facebook

It is generally known that I "heart" Facebook. Facebook is my boyfriend. Facebook is the only reason I have friends. Well, the only evidence that I have friends, because, seriously, if someone were to stalk me on an average week...they'd wonder if I knew anyone besides my family. They'd also wonder why I had a phone since I almost never call anyone. And, they'd probably also wonder what the heck is up with my pinky toes.

But, I digress.

Facebook is my boyfriend, and like any boyfriend there are things that I adore and things that I loathe about "him". What I adore is being able to catch glimpses of "a day in the life" of my friends and family and folks that were my friends back when we were in the 4th grade and that person I met that one time at a conference and that friend of a friend that I've never actually talked to. Facebook is great for that! What I don't adore so much is, well, people who don't get what Facebook is really for. Or, perhaps I should say, who don't use Facebook for the same reasons I do.

I use it to stay in touch with my friends, to keep up with them and see cute photos of their families and post status updates and comments that make people smile or, on a good day, laugh. I do not use Facebook as a forum to share my political views or rant about what is wrong with the government/the church/the grocery store near my home (well...not generally). I don't use Facebook to share news about my neighborhood (psst, there's a cop hiding on the corner of main and elm) or share my daily itinerary or give a sermon or passive-aggressively correct/comment on someone else's behavior (well not generally).

By and large, most of the folks on Facebook don't do those things either...but a recent perusal of status updates would suggest that the "we don't really 'get' Facebook" contingency is growing.

And, really, the more I think about the types of things these folks post, the more funny it seems to me. I mean, what if I was just really passionate about bottled water...about a specific kind of bottled water? What if I thought that all other forms of bottled water were horrible and of the devil? What if I took each and every opportunity I could to share the truth about the wrong kinds of bottled water or promote the right kind?

Now...what if I really didn't but pretended I did, just for one or two status updates? What if, out of the clear blue sky, right after I'd commented on my friend's baby and made a joke about another's dance moves, I posted something railing against Dasani? If nothing else, it would make people scratch their heads. But, hopefully, it would make them laugh, especially if they read an earlier post where I announced that I'd be posting the most pointless, ridiculous and even annoying status updates I could think of.

I started with this:

This is my cup of sprite. I don't drink sprite often. Do you like my lipstick?

To accompany these posts, I'll be going into a bit more detail about all the innocuous goodness on here, so stay tuned!

He gives what He takes away...

I decided to start reading through my old blog, the one I was better at keeping up and the one that chronicled a time when I felt much more faithful and much closer to God than I do now. The first post I read was one written almost 3 years ago to the day. It couldn't be more timely...

Monday, April 23, 2007

You Give and Take Away...Amen!

God shall provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering...(Genesis 22:8)

This portion of scripture has always been particularly meaningful to me, as I assume it is to most believers. It shows us the sameness of God. He truly changes not. He provided the lamb to redeem Isaac and He provided The Lamb - Christ - to redeem us. He was then and is now The God Who Provides. It also shows us His sovereignty. He sovereigly fulfilled His promise to Abraham, though his wife Sarah was old. He sovereignly called Abraham to sacrifice his son, led him to a particular hilltop, and stopped him at the exact moment in time some poor animal was getting himself caught in a bush. But as I read it again this weekend, something else struck me:

God provides for Himself everything He ever requires from us.
Whatever it is that we lose or are required to sacrifice, God first had to give.

He gives and He takes away.
He gives, sometimes, for the express purpose of taking away.
Certainly, He gives knowing He will take away.

On the surface, that sounds a bit cruel, but we do not serve a cruel God. What He does He calls "good", even when at first it may seem a painful kind of goodness. But, His taking away is no less good than His giving is, for His motive is always to work all things together for our good, to display His favor on our lives and bring Glory to His Name. The God who rejoices over us with singing could not be glorified in causing His children to suffer needlessly. But He can be glorified as we endure our sufferings, our losses and our sacrifices in light of His Character rather than our pain or disappointment. In this, in our hope and joy anchored in His goodness (not in circumstances) He is glorified and the world sees The God Who Provides, is full of tender mercy and steadfast love, who is our Comforter, and Healer, and Faithful Friend.

There is no loss we can suffer which should threaten to shake or diminish the truth of who God is in our lives...who He promises to be. He gave Himself for sinners such as us; what have we lost or been asked to sacrifice that can compare?

I humbly suggest the answer to that question is: Nothing.

That is not meant to diminish the real pain and difficulty that comes with what is taken or what we are required to sacrifice. But, could we truly call these things losses or sacrifices were it not for the pain? The pain is part of it, I think. In Job, it says ...he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. Job 5:18

He injures, but His hands heal. He takes away, but He gives and promises whatever toll He takes to satisfy our soul. (John Piper) That and so much more. He promises that all things...all loss, and sacrifice, and pain, and suffering...will work together for good. He promises that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives - not just on the days when we don't experience pain. He promises that our loss will be gain and that He has set joy before us that we can endure anything we face today. And more than all of this, He promises that, whatever comes or doesn't come, whatever we lose or keep, whatever sacrifice is required, He will never leave us, nor forsake us. He will provide the lamb - whether that lamb is a way out of loss or a way to bear it - and underneath it all are the everlasting arms to carry and comfort and heal.

He will provide all that is required...all we can do is say: AMEN!

Mighty to Save

"Mighty to Save.'
Those words have surrounded me all week.

I look around and see that I am in desperate need of saving. But, Lord, may it not be that I ask you only to save me from circumstances or habits. May it not be that I want you to just bring order and consistency to the daily aspects of my life. May I not default to or rely on a to-do-list or a routine to Save me. May I not see consistency and good habits as my salvation. Let it be that what I desire most is for you to renovate and fill my heart a new with Love for you...and to receive Love from you.

All I am, all I have to offer now is very much all I was and had to offer back when we first met. I come to you with empty hands and a heart yearning for something more, something better, something real. Yearning for You.

Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.

Earnestly I seek You.

Out of the depths, O Lord, I cry to you.

Let me not be ashamed.

And let me not be the same.

Let me not mistake correction for hatred.

Let me not confuse discipline and order with Love.

Let me not mistake legalism for holiness or worldliness for freedom.

Let me not insist that your salvation be regimented and hard.

Let me not be unwilling or resentful if, at times, it is.

Let me not attempt to be the author and director of my salvation.

Let me be as You desire...pliant, willing, & humble.

Let me also be willing to say "No", to forsake, to sacrifice.

Let me, above all, have a heart for what is pleasing to You, what honors You, what brings glory to You.

Amen.

Today's Lesson brought to you by "The Internet"

Someone blogged about my blog recently. It's a strange phenomenon, really. I mean, I read other people's blogs and comment and such, but being on the other end of that...being read by, commented on and, now, blogged about by someone I've never met...someone who only knows me via a comment I placed on someone else's blog and/or by reading one or two random posts on my own blog is just...well...I don't know how to explain the feeling. On one hand, its kinda neat. I mean, were it not for the internet, and probably google, none of this would be possible. I've even made a few friends via the Internet and the "blogosphere". It's also nice to know that when I hit "publish post", I'm not always sending my random (at times incoherent, silly, and -as it would turn out- mildly offensive) thoughts out into the abyss... sometimes, somewhere, someone reads them. I would hope most times said readers are more amused than offended. I truly do. On the other hand, its sorta like being spied on...by people who live in another state...and have no reason to spy other than pure curiosity...on a person who installed a large plate glass window in the front of their house and didn't put up curtains. Did you get that illustration? I'm the plate glass window person. That's sorta what a blog, or facebook, or twitter is, really...its like opening a window into your life. Most people will zoom by and catch a glimpse, some will come up to the window and stay a while, others will ask to come inside. All of them will form opinions. Some, the ones who stay awhile, maybe better informed, while others may happen to pass by on a day that isn't really typical. Regardless, opinions will be formed. So, kids, I guess the moral of this story, whatever you post, blog or tweet...be real, be you, and be prepared to be misunderstood...or exposed, as the case may be.