Twitter fast is over. Here are some thoughts that occurred to me through this self-imposed exile from twitter land.
1. It wasn’t that big a deal.
2. The biggest part of fasting from Twitter had to do with ‘relational maintenance.’ Being connected in the land of tweats did actually leave me feeling a little disconnected from my Twitter friends. It was more about knowing what was going on in their lives than keeping them up do date in my life.
3. The other component that I missed was some of the great quotes and inspiration that comes from some of those that I follow on Twitter. There are some on Twitter who clearly stir my mind and ensure that it doesn’t atrophy into a bowl full of mush. Guys like Leonard Sweet (www.leonardsweet.com) and Mark Batterson (evotional.com) provide some interesting and through provoking tweats.
All in all, it was a fun little experiment. During these three weeks that our church encouraged fasting I also forsook many meals. Even multi-day stretches without food. Those were clearly harder. When it comes to fasting, I am a purest: restrict food intake. Many things that people call a fast, even with Biblical names, are not fasts. I won’t dog them though, for the ultimate purpose of a fast is to refocus on your relationship with God. If there lives were re-tuned to the Spirit of God, who am I to judge.
As your Facebook fasting friend, I’ve learned a few things myself. First, just because I was fasting something I loved, it didn’t automatically make me closer to God. I still consciously needed to work at spending that time with Him. Like you, I missed the relational part of FB, but when breaking my fast, I was touched at the many comments by friends who were supportive and really missed me. Thirdly, it gave me an opportunity to witness to 3 non-believers who didn’t understand why I was doing it, which I think did more to glorify God than giving up food every would have done. I’m thankful God placed that fast upon my heart, because I truly feel that I was obedient to his will, not to what I thought I should be giving up. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Great thots Michele. Our spiritual progress is something that we partner with God in. It doesn’t happen automatically because we’ve made a decision, we still must consciously take action to grow closer to God.