"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."  Matthew 6:33

I think the title to this post is stupid.

I have no idea if Jesus would tweet somebody were he walking around today, and if he did - what would it look like?

                  "2:24pm...Hey, I'm going over to this gal's house who is a little under the weather....oops, hold on, somebody just touched my  khakis....update you in a few".

                  "2:56pm...Sorry for the delay... the guy that grabbed my pants is back to normal...and I just fixed this gal's leg (and her roof)"

                  "4:14pm....praying.........4:46pm....still am........."

If Jesus were tweeting, I would subscribe.  I'm just not sure if he would or wouldn't tweet.  I can only speak for me.

And I won't.

Ok, let me give the disclaimer - "I in no way consider tweeting unspiritual, demonic, or foul.  It is simply a choice that I, an individual Christian am making; thus, I have no desire to impose my view on you or imply anything condemnatory by my actions."  I think I said that just like my attorney wrote it......

There are a number of reasons why I won't be tweeting any time soon (or any time later), and I will go ahead and list a few:

1.  I am cluttered enough.  Like I now need to manage my life second by second for the public who is waiting with baited breath for my next tweet - right; I need that like I need a cactus sandwich. 

2.  It's only virtually relational - not really relational.  There is an aspect of relationship that simply can't be covered with technology - the actual face to face human interaction that generates feelings of varying kinds and develops a bond.

3.  The motivation of why I would tweet, and why someone would want me to tweet them is a bit scary.  Seriously, why would I want to list out all my moves in life for people to follow?  Do I think people are that interested in me?  If I do, that's scary.  And, why would I want to follow someone else's life that closely?  It's like virtual stalking.  I love people, but I seriously don't care about your dilemma at Hobby Lobby of whether to purchase the Snuggie or the Sham Wow.  On either side, as a tweeter or tweetie, I am just not following the motivation.  Same could be said for blogs that do in macro format what Twitter does in micro format.

4. It would interfere with my 6 hours a day "poking" on Facebook (joking...not on there either).

What ever happened to simplicity?  It is a discipline of the spiritual life that can get lost so fast in this real time "tweeting" world that we actually forget that simplicity is what Soren Kierkegaard said, "Purity of heart is to will one thing."  Basically, with this definition, you have the opposite of duplicity (two competing loyalties or priorities).  Simplicity eliminates that which detracts from our ability to seek first the Kingdom of God, and keeps us focused, centered, and prioritized.  In this day and age, that should not be underestimated.

Clearly, I'm not anti-technology.  I'm blogging right now about simplicity (seems sort of funny).  Even better, I recently read a blog about simplicity, and at the top of the blog the guy asks you to track with him on Stumble Upon, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, and of course provides an RSS feed.  That's even funnier (more ironic maybe).

Technology is fine.  It's a moral neutral - it's all in how we use it.  And technology is not the issue of this post - the human heart is.  When we don't find our satisfaction in seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, then we feel the vacuous nature of our heart and mind.  As a result, we have a need to fill the gaps with activity - something to take our minds off of our emptiness and lack of purpose.  For some, we live through other's lives (tweeting, FB, etc.).  Others fill those gaps other ways.  But all of us must come back to the words of Jesus and realize that if we don't first seek Him, then we are going to be radically off center and increasingly frustrated in our spiritual growth.

That's why a few of these choices I make in my life are because I can't afford the clutter.  Sometimes my heart and mind is cluttered enough.  Sometimes I have trouble concentrating on Jesus and His Kingdom even without all the distractions.  Adding too much to my life, even when the culture is pressuring me to do it, is simply counterproductive for my spiritual development.  Maybe you could ask yourself the question, "What have I filled my life with that is making me more cluttered and wrestling my attention away from the things of the Kingdom?"  I don't know what your answers might be, but some of mine are obvious.  Tweet Tweet. 

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."  Matthew 5:8

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with work, or life, or whatever that I don't really think straight.  It seems that the noise rules sometimes, and my thoughts, ideas, and creativity get muddied.

I long for clarity sometimes.

There is a clarity that can come to anyone.  Everyone has epiphanies, whether a follower of Jesus or not - everyone experiences moments of clarity.  I know that sometimes when life is on overdrive, when stress is high, and when every string is pulled as tight as it can go - I just need to get out and exercise.  Just take a run, push around some weights, or ride an angry, hungry bull (I do two of these three, I'll leave the guessing up to you).  It gets my endorphins kicking, pushes some of the toxins out of my body, and in those moments after I finish I feel like I can think more clearly.  Well, physiologically, I probably am a little sharper mentally as a result.  But that is not the clarity I am after (though it is definitely a good thing).  I'm not necessarily after this because anyone can find this kind of mental sharpness and alertness if they take care of their body.  No, it's something different.

Clarity is about sight, after all - it's about seeing things clearly.  In my lifetime, I have seen a lot of things.  Some of my aged acquaintances and friends have seen a lot more than I have.  But this is not really what I want either - everyone, no, anyone, that lives life will see some things.  In fact, they will see a lot of things.  Some will be clear, others may not be - but that is just a part of living.  Some of the things we long to see are wonderful indeed.  Some of those things are noble and beautiful and worthwhile.  Some of the things I want to see that I haven't seen yet: The Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Australia, the Roman Coliseum, and the Aurora Borealis to name a few.  Some beautiful things that I have seen: Israel, the Swiss Alps, the waters of the Caribbean, the Rocky Mountains, Niagara Falls, the faces of my wife and children.

All of these are beautiful.  All of these are worthwhile to see.  And everyone would agree.

But there will always be something missing from the beauty if we fail to see it - really see. 

God.

I want to see God.

We don't always see Him though, do we?  I would suggest the reason we don't see Him sometimes is because are hearts are a bit muddy.  We aren't clean.  We aren't pure.  But Jesus reminds us with a phrase from his teaching on the hillside that purity gives clarity.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

This isn't some claim that we can get ourselves into a moral position to be able to see God.  That would be the opposite of what Jesus is trying to tell us.  I think He is reminding us that when we embrace Him, the One who is the righteousness, holiness, and purity of God - when we embrace Him, we see God.  When we surrender to the way of Jesus - we will see God.  And that, honestly, is the only sight that has the power to transform the human soul because every other expression of beauty in place or in person is simply a reflection of the Beautiful, Awe-inspiring God who created them.