10:33 AM Aug 11th from txt

Praying w/ Mark that God’s Kingdom would come.

3:04 PM Aug 12th from TwitterFon

Meditating on the Scriptures

4:14 PM Aug 13th from txt

Just got back from volunteering at the nursing home.

In a world where we are able to provide continuous 3rd-person social commentary about ourselves, and post it for all to see, it’s no wonder that Facebook news-feeds and personal Twitter streams are chock-full of spiritual ramblings. Today people pray, serve, praise, and pastor–and then let that little blue tweety-bird know about it (simultaneously, letting everyone else know too). Now, we are all capable of claiming a non-threatening piece of the Christian life megaphone–we are all seconds away from being able to send Scriptures, or life advice to an audience of our few close friends, and a few hundred of our furthest acquaintances.

Since this is such a new phenomenon it’s no surprise that Christians, in an effort to stay up-to-date with technology, have jumped head first into this new realm of mass communication. But what does the Bible have to say regarding second-to-second updates about our spiritual lives?

Jesus seems to have some clear teaching in Matthew Chapter 6 on just this topic when He says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men, to be noticed by them.” He then goes on to provide three illustrations of this principle in practice, discussing the acts of: giving/serving, praying, and fasting. With the first, a man is not to let his right hand know what his left hand is giving to the poor. In other words, even the man who gives is supposed to be in some sort of ignorant state regarding his righteous service. Does this illustration mean we can only type Facebook status updates with our left hand, our right hand remaining ignorant, while the world stage is privy to all our good deeds?

Later in Jesus’ digression He speaks of the man who prays on the street corner to be seen by others, and the one fasting who looks sickly to advertise his malnourishment. These actions all take place in the public square, in busy socially-trafficked areas, where the man in question can be noticed. What is our modern-day public square?–the obvious answer being the internet and friend-networking sites where the majority of our social exchanges occur throughout the day.

“Wait,” a man might say, “this Scripture is for the man who wants to be noticed, and I am doing this for the glory of God!” And I say, “sure, that’s well and good,” but why does Jesus go on to command that His followers are to lock themselves in a closet when they pray? And it’s not phrased as a healthy rule of thumb, but a command of great lengths.

What use is it if you lock yourself in a closet to pray, and then tweet to the world about your secret intercession session? Even if you feel free of the attention-temptation–the command is not to be free of the desire to be noticed, but to completely eliminate the context of being noticed. God is greater than our hearts and knows that no one is free from the temptation of spiritual vanity. And when you update your righteous status before God alone, He promises to reward your piety.