I'm all a-Twitter

Shortly before bedtime last night, my cell phone made a familiar chime from the adjacent room.  I did not immediately interrupt what I was doing to go check it.  These gadgets are supposed to make our lives easier, not more complicated.  So I have to occasionally show it who’s boss by responding on my own terms.  So I waited a full three or four minutes (I guess that showed it) and then got up and headed in to check.  I told Mrs. Sweetie I needed to see if that chime indicated a “text” or a “tweet”.  She laughed.  My actions often elicit that response from her.  She reminded me that, not that long ago, those words had completely different meanings. 

For those who need a reminder, “text” was a word referring to printed material that was read from an object held in one’s hand that had paper pages.  In its most common use, it contained the suffix “book”.  “Tweet” was a noise made by a bird.  How times have changed!

In my current ministry, I assist more than sixty churches in three counties and I attend a different one every Sunday.  Yesterday, we attended a church that was celebrating its 111^th anniversary.  Every year, on the anniversary of the founding of the church, the folks dress up in historical garb and reminisce about their past.  You should have seen me in my new Sunday-go-to-meetin’ overalls.  It was a great time, topped off by one of those classic Baptist pot luck lunches (or as we used to call them, “dinner on the grounds”).  My new overalls were a little tighter around the middle when I left there.

An interesting thing I have noticed is that a lot of the churches I visit celebrate the past every Sunday.  And every other day of the week.  There is a joke that has been often repeated in my circles for the past few years.  A church called a new pastor and they scheduled a big celebration on his first Sunday.  When he stepped to the pulpit, he proclaimed, “I’m so excited to be your pastor and I believe that God has called me here to lead this church into the 20^th century!”  After the service, one of the leaders took him aside to discreetly point out his mistake.  “Pastor, didn’t you mean to say God called you here to lead this church into the 21^st century?”  “Friend,” the pastor replied, “we’re going to have to take it one century at a time!”

I have to admit that I understand both sides of the story.  I have reached the age that I reminisce more.  I remember simpler times when the pace of life and change seemed a lot slower.  I remember when …

There I go.  It’s a lot easier to look back.  There are definite memories.  There are vivid images.  The future seems a whole lot more fuzzy and scary.  Maybe that’s why memory is easier than vision.  It seems safer.  But in reality, memory is the only way we have of going back to those simpler times.  We live in these times and if we keep living, that uncertain future will one day become our present.  

So, how do we do it?

This morning I read from Isaiah 46:9-10 - "Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ' My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'”

 

Our lives today and tomorrow matter to the same God for whom our lives mattered yesterday.

That’s a pretty good saying.  I may have to tweet it.