Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Follow

As I was going over the list of people I follow on twitter and those who follow me I began to question why I follow certain people.  There are a couple of 'celebrities' that are on my list.  Not anyone that you might consider to be top profile names, but those in the sports world that give updates on trades and other things that I have some interest in, OK a lot of interest.  I have some people on there that some may consider christian celebrity, mostly music related, and I follow them because I like to see where they are touring, if they are coming anywhere near my area, and too see when new albums are being released.  I have some pastors that I enjoy learning from, an organization I have a commitment to and then I have family and friends.


It occurred to me that while not all of these are important in my life, they each offer something into who I am.  The glaring omission?  I don't have the bible passage a day feed coming through, or C.S. Lewis even.  I won't get to in depth as to why, but the basic reason is that I would hate to have this as my only scripture based moment of the day, because I have fallen into that trap before.  Not with twitter but with printed devotional material, one sentence of scripture and some kind words, there I'm done for today.


As I contemplated following the person or persons who update this feed I wondered about Jesus, would he follow the feed, would he 'retweet' the passages that came across his screen.  Or would he just offer his words to those who followed his tweets.  Then my mind went a new direction.  Who would we find that followed Jesus.  Of course this is all under the pretense that Jesus would need to be physically with us right now and spend any amount of time on social media venues.


Would we see other religious figures on his list, movie stars, professional athletes, musicians, those who claim to love him, those who do.  How many people would use him in their tweets, Hey @Jesus, you the man.  Or #ff (friday follow) his name.  We live in a day where the added thanks to God and Jesus is no longer cool, it's more taboo.  How many times in years past was God thanked for a grammy or oscar by people who lived indifferent to the gospel?  Now those are not spoken as often.


People may follow him, because let's face it, if God is on the scene you want to be at least near what he is doing.  Then another tunnel swept my train of thought away.  Would we really follow?  Like the people who came to Jesus and said I want to follow you, and he challenged them to sell all their possessions or let the dead bury the dead.  Would we Friend him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter alone, or would we lay it down and follow his footsteps?  Chase after him through the wilderness, ride through the storm with him, wash feet at his side, pour out our lives for his cause?


I know where his loyalties are to me, but where would mine be if he stood behind me right now?  Where would yours be?  Would he be welcome at your dinner table, or just on the computer screen?  Would you follow the man, or just the tweets?


After all when we boil down everything in this life, one decision needs to be made above all others, where does your heart lie?  Are you seeking the Kingdom, or just the recognition of it's benefits?


Jesus called us to follow him, not the illusion of a man or deity on social media sites.  
@Jesus doesn't speak to you, @Jesus doesn't change your life.  @Jesus doesn't supply your every need.


JESUS does, follow him.


*on a related note, someone created an @Jesus twitter feed with now over 200 000 followers.  Read some of the tweets, and to my shock and surprise, it's not Jesus.  #heartbreaker

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