12 Step Recovery: Using Social Media to Work Step 12 (especially with Church people)

Step Twelve

"Having had a spiritual awakening
as the result of these steps,

we tried to carry this message to alcoholics,

and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

God only knows what Bill W. and anyone else involved with writing The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions would have included had the Internet been invented by 1952. Until now, I haven't spent a lot of time contemplating this counter-factual. Now, thanks to ongoing situations and recent events, I'm pondering how social media might be used as tool for recovery.

Some situations have been on my radar for the 5+ years I've been actively engaged with (contemporary) social media. On Twitter this includes observing circling-the-drain behavior that sometimes shows up as a near-constant stream about what the person is hoping to drink, is drinking (while posting increasingly incoherent tweets), or drank.

On rare occasions, I've seen people in this category tweet about feeling crappy the next day without connecting the dots between feeling that and their drinking. I've also observed the swift segue into defensive public outrage when their public blahblahblah is questioned as…questionable.

Crash-and-splash landings also show up as ever-increasing amounts of chaos, conflict, moodiness, outrage, and grandiosity in public tweets. Believe me, I've been in recovery long enough to know this is a reliable indication that either a whole lot of out-of-control drinking is going on, or someone in recovery is on a dry drunk.

Because I'm disproportionately involved with church people (i.e., clergy, lay leadership, seminarians), I cannot help but notice tweets from those who are "giving up alcohol for Lent!" and who then spend 40 days posting about the agony of having done so – not as a joke, but as true distress.

Yes, there are church people who are active drunks.*

Let's get real: A call to ministry neither magically nor mysteriously exempts anyone from alcoholism. There have always been church people wreaking havoc in and around church-the-building because of their addictions; no surprise they'd do so online as well. (For the record, I do not believe drinking is inherently evil and that anyone who drinks is destined for alcoholism.)

Relative to events, I've become aware (over the past decade-ish) of the frequency with which high-profile authors write about their addiction and recovery. Yeah, I know, Hazelden published my book about recovery and my name is on it, so what's my issue? 

No issue per se, just noting how it's no longer considered a violation of Traditions 11 and 12 to write about recovery in memoirs. True turning point for me: reading Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber's new book, Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saintas well as #grateful tweets from readers who identify with her story. I gotta believe some great percentage are clergy who either are or need to get clean and sober.

And so here I am, someone with double-digit recovery called to digital ministry, offering these suggestions for using social media to work Step 12 and maintain hard-earned sobriety

• Use the tools of social media to minister to those who are acting out on social media, especially the "back channel" (i.e., direct messages on Twitter, private messages on Facebook); also links to informative, educational resources. 

• Pull screen shots (or maybe create a Storify?!?) of (wet/dry) drunk tweets to document what's going on, then email them to the person. Think of this as a virtual intervention which, like face-to-face interventions may/may not work. As we know, people do not sober up because other people beg or threaten. 

• Become sensitive to Program language encoded in tweets and reach out to find others in recovery. Send a back channel note asking, "Are you a friend of Bill W.?" and then if they are, consider them your online go-to people for near real-time support and accountability.

• Either block or remove from view (e.g., in a Tweetdeck or Hootsuite column) people whose acting out puts your serenity and therefore sobriety at risk.

• Add tweets and Facebook posts to practicing "restraint of tongue and pen." And you'll screw that up, so remember to add online activity to your Step Ten practice of taking a personal inventory and promptly admitting wrongs.

• In addition to being a "walking copy of the Big Book," become a cyber one.

FWIW, recovery seems to unfold online as it does "in the rooms." I've seen people hit Step Zero ("This shit has to stop.) and eventually get to Step One ("We admitted we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable."). I've watched days get counted, pink clouds get floated upon, more crap hit the fan o' life, slips happen, and support provided.

In the world of church, I've seen all this lead to people leaving churches for healthier environments, or leaving active ministry altogether. And although I've never taken the time to tweet the entire Serenity Prayer, it certainly comes to mind and heart whenever I see Program support being played out online.

* For some, alcoholism is biochemical, for others it’s psycho-spiritual; for most it’s a blend of all these factors and more. In the end, havoc is havoc and wreckage is wreckage.

     

Real Virtual Reality: Revelations About Going "Off the Grid" in the World of Social Media

Yes, I really do try to practice what I preach, especially when it comes to social media. In that domain, I generally try to test on myself everything I recommend to others. I also periodically re-test and revisit my recommendations to update my reality.

Last week, I decided to go "off the grid" for a few days, something that provided an opportunity to update my reality about burnout symptoms and palliative care for it. Here's what I learned:

My fabulous advice about treating virtual community as real community is fabulous advice.
Just like I'd let neighbors know if I was leaving town, I posted a tweet about going off the grid.

Within seconds, I received a direct message (DM) from someone wanting to know if everything was okay. Sweet!

By the end of the day I'd received three more direct messages and several public messages with well wishes and blessings for my time off.

I can't recall that ever happening during my time as a high-visibility church volunteer and then a (paid) pastoral associate. I do recall no inquiries about my well-being and no offers to bring Holy Eucharist to my home during times I was too sick to attend worship or work.

My fabulous list of social media burnout symptoms needs to be tweaked. 
In my own case, feeling "tired, frustrated, cranky, or apathetic" didn't completely capture the symptoms I provided in The Social Media Gospel (see Chapter 26, p. 106-109). Big fat affirmatory to "tired, frustrated, and cranky" but instead of becoming apathetic, becoming hyper-vigilant is a sure sign of burnout.

I typically spend a lot of time monitoring accounts, conversations, groups, and the like across denominations and social media platforms. I'm known for providing solicited and unsolicited advice. (You're welcome.) I'm also keen on staying current with changes in functionality and keeping my own accounts up-to-date.

A sign of social media burnout for me, then, is not apathy, but becoming over-the-top engaged; squandering creative energy by becoming too busy monitoring and providing advice and following conversations that really don't need my input.

Also, although there's some overlap in symptoms of "burnout" and "compassion fatigue," these are different conditions. Note to self: write a post about that...at some point.

My fabulous advice about prayerful discernment before pulling the plug is fabulous advice.
I slept 12 hours on Tuesday night after logging off after the #ChSocM (church social media) chat. I spent most of Wednesday napping and reading; wearing earplugs to shut out ambient sound.

Other than peeking at email once and handling a client situation, I stayed off-line. By Thursday evening, I was feeling unpleasantly disoriented. By Friday, I was slipping into depression. WTF? Time for the prayerful discernment I recommend on p. 109! I probably should have engaged in this before going off the grid, but better late than never. My revelation:

Social media is so deeply integrated into my daily life that pulling the plug without refining the terms of dis-engagement can be harmful to my psycho-spiritual health. 

Different social media serve different functions in my life. Fortunately, I knew enough to retain the visual social media platforms and posted this to Facebook:

Relative to creativity, I probably should have used part of my off-the-grid time to re-focus on my personal blog. Writing is, after all, one of my primary spiritual practices.

Also, because my community of support is online, going into solitary confinement for days was not the wisest choice for me. Better choice: creating stronger time limits for using highly interactive social media platforms (e.g., Twitter) and making better distinctions between work and play.

In addition, I know that I thrive within the safe container of structure. My regular engagement via social media provides that structure. No surprise I was getting disoriented without following some kind of structured routine for engagement.

Next time I unplug, I'll be more precise -- and smarter -- about what that means. So enough about me for a nanosecond, what about you?

Have you ever gone completely or near-completely off the grid? What, in practical terms, did that mean? How did you feel? If you felt like crap, do you know why? What will you do differently the next time you unplug?

When Thursday Feels Like Friday

This is possibly the third week in a row Thursday has felt like Friday. Maybe it's because I generally work at least one full day on weekends and front-load Mondays and Tuesdays. By Thursday I'm basically done -- as in "turkeys are done, people are finished."

Around here, Monday is Clergy Day Off but that doesn't stop me from racing around. I tend to spend Tuesdays dealing with whatever suddenly occurred to clients over the weekend. I end the day either attending or moderating the church social media (#chsocm) chat on Twitter. Wednesdays I follow-up whatever got generated. Is it any wonder that Thursday has started feeling like Friday?

Apparently I am not alone. Last Thursday, my Loyola Press gal pal Denise Gorss (@Denise205) posted a tweet about it feeling like Friday. Hence, this exegetical exchange:

Yes, I do believe that two or more of us thinking it's Friday makes it so.

Also that Jesus the Christ is with us and expecting roasted chicken for Thursday's faux Shabbat meal. That's my time-tripping delusion and I'm sticking to it.

The Password is . . .

Couldn't resist grabbing this screen shot from Tweetdeck:

An Author's Life: Support, Accountability & Twitter

Done with the wedding, enjoying the marriage. Next up: book.

Yes, I'm writing another book. Actually, I'm writing two but thought I'd start by finishing one . . . hopefully getting it into production right after Thanksgiving. I mention this to make a point about the power and glory of community built on and by social media.

Here's what happened this morning before I finally logged off Twitter to focus on writing (right after I create and post this):

Moving the Action for Wedding Week!

Temporarily moving this party

 to #3xCharm. 

You might not know this about me, but I seize every opportunity to make a point about the power and glory of online tech tools, especially social media. My wedding celebration with Dan is a case in point to make this point. Here's how:

We used Sendomatic  for many invitations and then Facebook (Event pages) and Twitter for follow-up. Many months ago, Dan (@RevWeb) came up with the idea of using this Twitter hashtag: #3xCharm. The analytics for the past 24 hours look like this:

Over the weekend, one of my dearest friends and healthcare social media colleagues, Ed Bennett (@EdBennett) met us at the cathedral to test the WiFi and give UStream a practice run.  (Note: We're streaming through the homily being delivered by another dear friend, Roman Catholic Deacon Jim Knipper (@jjknipper and vows, only. If you want to hear the final hymn, Holy God, We Praise Your Name, click here.)

We also set up #3xCharm where you'll be able to watch the wedding liturgy:

It's a temporary site we'll take down, along with FB Event pages, after our wedding...maybe during the honeymoon we're not taking? WhatEVER.  

In the midst of writing this post, Dan proofread the worship bulletin one more time, found a smudge on the printed cover page. "Chocolate?" he asked. "More likely blood."  The worship bulletin is now uploaded to Slideshare (aka, YouTube for documents and presentations). 

From The Duh Department: I love online tech and social media! 

Regular blogging will resume here the week of November 6.  

The Pope tweets, sort of . . .

Yesterday's big news: Pope Benedict XVI's first tweet, launching the website where Vatican news will be aggregated and available, News.va. 

Brilliant PR maneuver. Really! Not being snarky!!

By mid-afternoon, I'd already had several public and back
channel conversations about this on Twitter.  Later that evening, I was  in conversation with The Daily reporter, Carl Franzen (@CarlFranzen) whose article, "Tweet Heavens!" rolled out this morning. 

Things move very quickly via social media, which is more than I can generally say for my beloved church. You do know that joke about responsiveness within the Roman Catholic church, right? "We'll get back to you in 400 years."

Franzen nicely captures my view about the trajectory of this "news," so I hope you'll read his article. It's blessedly short. What space did not permit there was my riff about the tension between what is symbolic and what is real, which is this: 

Let's get real, the Holy Father did not and probably will not be crafting tweets. And this is not "cheating" or "lying" or "disingenuous." This is the reality of issuing communications by and from a high ranking church official.


Although my experience in church communications is primarily within and for the Catholic church, I say with all confidence that it's not unusual for leadership in all denominations to rely on the skills and smarts of communications professionals.

Be assured that those of us called upon to (holy) ghost write for archbishops, bishops, and parish-level clergy view this use of our talents as a great privilege.

Our work is generally vetted up the cleric food chain, often with Canon lawyers weighing in. The tweet issued by the Pope was innocuous enough to sail through the process. 

I say that tweet, no matter who wrote it, had great symbolic value. Who knows what will show up next? Should be real interesting.

Rapture? I'm Enraptured with Twitter!

Of course I needed 13.5 hours of sleep after this week's adventures in NYC, so that's what I did last night after returning to Baltimore and scarfing down a meal at Cafe Hon.

It was strangely silent in my apartment building when I awoke. Had I been Left Behind? Doubtful.

Not to be prideful, but I'm pretty sure God would want me around for comic relief from overly pious souls. I logged onto Tweetdeck just to be sure the Rapture hadn't happened* and was soon laughing my corporeal butt off.

Enjoy these screen shots of just some quips from the Twitterati, proof positive of why I'm enraptured with Twitter:

* New ETD: 6:00 PM EDT on 5/21/11

Royal Wedding

Love this image by photographer Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images which showed up on Vanity Fair by mid-morning. Love that bridesmaid Grace Van Cutsem (her real name) is not cropped out, as she has been in other versions of Macdiarmid's picture of Kate and William's first kiss.

I discovered this on Twitter where, in case you don't already know, I spend many of my waking hours and have darned good reasons for doing so. (See, e.g., @Virtual_Abbey and @HealthFaith).

Twitter is great for observing culture commentary emerging in real time. There was lots relative to the #RoyalWedding.*  Much was delightfully snarky but there was a lot of earnestly appalled and downright rude commentary from and among tweeps who consider themselves people of deep faith.

I get it. Really, I do. I get how the costly pomp of this royal wedding seems obscenely profligate considering the British economy, fights for liberation in the Middle East, and worldwide natural disasters of Biblical proportion.

But I also get the importance of celebrating joy and hope for new beginnings; of public sacraments; of pledges that invoke eternity while anchored in the corporeal.  These seem like fine things to observe, especially during this Easter season. Get it?

* The hashtag (#) is a tagging convention used in social media.

Modern Monastic? Check out The Virtual Abbey

If you'd like to live in sync with the Benedictine tradition without hieing off to a building, then the Virtual Abbey may work for you. It does for me. This online community, once known as the Urban Abbey, has become a steady and steadying presence. Thanks be to God -- and Twitter.

Seven months ago, I was just beginning to grasp the power of Prayer 2.0. Now, I'm participating more fully. Participation has meant engaging with other believers (interpret that however you wish) to create more ways to become church via social media.

In addition to praying the Daily Office on Twitter (@Virtual_Abbey), we're gathering as a community on Facebook. Our blog, The Virtual Abbey, is now live and I'm happy to reveal that I have the privilege of serving as editor. Please check out our Abbess' welcoming post wherein she notes how "we're ecumenical in the extreme." I love that part!

Check us out and then stay for prayer and conversation; discover how spiritual life transcends boundaries of time and place.

"Of blessed memory..."

Travis Lee "Gideon" Addington
1979-2009

Now whenever I think about Gideon, I automatically add "of blessed memory." This is how Jews customarily refer to what Christians call "the faithful departed." Passionate about his Christian faith, Gideon was also keenly aware of how Judaism had formed most of his short-lived life.

Gideon sought and received the sacrament of Baptism as an adult. This is just one of the many ways we connected. I was also inspired by his commitment to the emergent church movement and ecumenicism.

More literally, we connected via Twitter, his blogs, through email, and eventually by phone. I know I'm not the only one who was provoked to deeper thought, broader faith, and greater action as a result of reading whatever he posted.

I'm thinking about Gideon a lot and not just because his suicide last Friday is stunningly fresh in my mind and heart. Even as I write this post, a cloud of witnesses has gathered for a Service of Witness to the Resurrection in Gideon's blessed memory. The service, which began at 9:00 AM Eastern Time, will continue throughout the day. Where? On Twitter.

And if this seems impossible or ridiculous or sacrilegious to you, I invite you to visit and scroll through the prayers and reflections being shared via #tworship.

I also invite you to scroll through the virtual condolence book on Sacred Ground (Voices from Trinity Tulsa). That blog, like many others, includes a prayer Gideon wrote last month, one that begins: "I am broken among the broken. . .Lord, deliver me from my despair." For insightful commentary about whether Gideon's prayer was answered, please read this post at Angelic Insights.

You'll find thoughts about the power of virtual community and how the image of God is revealed through people of faith at Missio Dei. This post at Complexity Simplified describes the comfort of virtual Compline the night Gideon's death was announced on Twitter.

There are many more examples to underscore this sacred reality: God exists everywhere, in all things, and at all times; faith in Christ is not defined or determined by denominations; church is not a building.

Gideon's life exemplified this wisdom, his death reveals it.

Health Care Reform: What's Faith Got to Do With It?

I'm pretty confident that anyone reading this blog knows I spend lots of time on Twitter. What you might not know is that on Twitter I'm as engaged in conversations about healthcare communications as I am in ones about faith. Those worlds are now colliding on a regular basis.

While I'm trying to feel thrilled about these two passions coming together, I mostly have a headache. How can so many decent and compassionate Christians be so woefully out-of-touch with what and who we are called to be as God's people? I'll have more to say about the concept of "preferential option" in another post. Until then, here are some resources worth reviewing for background.

To get started, check out Health Care Reform Explained from the Back of the Napkin Blog, a delightfully smart way to sort through this stuff. (H/T to Bob Coffield, who writes Health Care Law Blog).

The Kaiser Family Foundation provides a way to review major comprehensive proposals for healthcare reform. Thanks to the power and glory of technology, you can compare proposals across key characteristics and plan components. You also have the option of downloading a printable version: Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals

Faithful Reform in Health Care is an independent nonprofit organization taking on the considerable challenge of articulating and advancing a faith-based agenda for health care reform. Put more simply: enough with the ecumenical and interfaith squabbling -- let's stand on common holy ground. If you read nothing else on this site, at least check out the Theology and Policy material, which includes statements from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic organizations.

I recommend using Father Austin Fleming's fine blog, A Concord Pastor as a portal to find out what the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has to say about Health Care Reform. My current favorite piece linking Catholic social teachings and health care reform is by Sara Criger, CEO of St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota: "Stakes too high not to reform health care system".

At their recent General Convention, the Episcopal Church passed a resolution about Health Care Coverage for All and has also put together the Health Care For All Discussion Guide, an excellent resource explaining why health policy is a Christian concern.

Back in 2003, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) issued Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor, which includes this wise observation: "Fear and self-interest defeat social justice in the political processes of health care reform."

To be continued . . . maybe tomorrow . . . after the pain meds kick in . . .

My Wonder Woman Weekend

The virtual world, Second Life, has been around for a couple of years which, in Internet terms, makes it old news and ancient history. Nevertheless, Second Life recently popped up on my personal radar. I have Twitter to thank for that.

More specifically, my thanks go to a group of gal pals active in Twitter's healthcare social media community and a New Zealand-based Anglican priest. My gals pals decided we ought to change our avatars to images of Wonder Woman for a weekend. Fr. Bosco Peters tweeted a link to his post about virtual sacraments.

I loved my weekend as Wonder Woman. Judging from tweets about using magic bracelets to ward off ridiculous demands for ROI measurements, so did everyone else. Dealing with the healthcare industry seemed so much easier in that persona, thus providing a glimpse of what might motivate anyone's participation in Second Life. Maybe it would be easier to work in healthcare communications over there? And, gee, what would participating in church community be like?

This kicker from Fr. Peters' post, "Virtual Eucharist: Can sacraments work in the virtual world?" has further piqued my curiosity about such possibilities:

"What we need is not a parodying in the virtual world of that which is particular to Real Life -- we need to discern appropriate ways of mission and ministry in and through the virtual world that may very well be significantly different to what we can do in the Real World. It is that which is its blessing and its challenge."

While, I'm not rushing to create a Second Life, I do find myself pondering how to make imagination, creativity, and innovation more possible in this one. I'm also wondering why, after I'd restored my usual head shot after my weekend as Wonder Woman, someone on Twitter asked, "Are you a nun? Or just a devout woman?"

Prayer 2.0

Self-mortification may now be forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church, but that has never stopped me from self-flagellation for almost always being late for prayer.

By being "late for prayer" I mean being late for formally convened morning (Matins), evening (Vespers), and night (Compline) prayer. I'm always on time for spontaneous utterances of gratitude, grief, or petition to God.

If you stay at a monastery where the Liturgy of the Hours (LoTH) is chanted, I'm the retreatant running -- silently, of course -- down the halls, through the cloister walk, and slipping into her seat midway through the first psalm. I've also replayed this scene in suburban churches and city cathedrals. My practice of being late for practice is interfaith as well as ecumenical. During the ashram years, for example, I was late for morning meditation and evening Aarti.

My seemingly chronic lateness for devotions even happens in the sanctified privacy of my hermitage. Now, thanks to twitter, I've stopped making myself oh-so-wrong for being oh-so-tardy for devotions. I joyfully participate in Prayer 2.0, which currently involves following TheUrbanAbbey. The Abbess posts morning and evening prayer in 140 character tweets.

Goofy? Not at all.

I seem more inclined to pay attention to what I'm praying when I have time to read, repeat, and digest it at my own pace. Something about this medium compels me to sit still long enough to contemplate, "Lord come to my assistance, make haste to help me," rather than hastening on to the next line in what might otherwise become rote prayer. Indeed, I've been jolted out of rote prayer because The Urban Abbey uses a variety of Anglican and Episcopal resources, including prayers from the exquisite New Zealand prayerbook.

I love how Prayer 2.0 frees me from the constraints of praying morning prayer at some dreadful hour -- sacred for some; ungodly for me. Meanwhile, having the call to prayer pop up on my computer monitor has become a powerful incentive to simply stop whatever I'm so busily doing and attend. It's the 21st century and, mea mongo culpa, the screen prompt has more impact than church bells, allowing me to pray in a very disciplined undisciplined way.

Into Mini-Silence and Back

Back from a much-needed silent retreat that I didn't realize how much I much-needed. Although I'm the sole (human) inhabitant of my hermitage, the noise of daily life is...noisy. For much of this I have only myself to blame.

I'm so under the thrall of social media that I've taken to setting timers to limit my futzing around on Linked In, Twitter, and Facebook. These media can become very noisy -- and that's with muting the pinging and tweeting of incoming messages.

I've noticed how Twitter especially seems to trigger and sustain internal conversation. Still, it's better than wandering the streets muttering to imaginary friends. At least I'm muttering silently in front of a computer with people who exist. And I've come to treasure their presence in my life.

My tweet about going on a silent retreat generated a slew of replies similar to this delightful tweet, "Prayers ascending joining with yours." Rather than dive right back into conversation, I uploaded a picture from a chapel at Daylesford Abbey to signal my return and received a slew of welcome back messages.

So how was two days and one night of social silence? Spiritually productive and relaxing -- especially after rearranging the furniture in my room. More about that and other tips for going on retreat in my next post.


Picture: Looking up at Daylesford Abbey

5 Days of Tweets and Still All A-Twitter

Five days into trying twitter and I'm even more smitten.

It abounds with possibilities for business, although an entire generation of sales and marketing folks may have to retire before twittering becomes standard operating procedure in that sector. But perhaps with smarties like Chris Brogan and his colleagues at CrossTech Media championing new media tools for business development, change will happen sooner rather than later. That's my hope.

Moving right along.

On Wednesday, I twittered with a group watching the presidential debate. Very handy to be a sociologist! I was able to read, analyze, and sort the flow into categories pretty quickly. Quickly? Understatement. This is a very fast medium. That experience got me thinking about how conference or meeting-based twittering would need to include training about how to get and stay focused.

What does this have to do with church and building community? I'll get to that in another post.

Here, I'll note that I installed TweetDeck to organize my tweeps into categories. Tweeps = people using twitter. I'm following 49 folks involved with new media, or church communications, or ministry. I also added to my list folks who self-identify as sociologists.

How many people are following me? By today: 20. Ruth, who started twittering within 12 hours of me, has 33 tweeps following her. "It's because I'm a gimp," she says. She thinks her disabilities rights knowledge and activism is generating a following for her micro-blogging. Her aide wants to see if it generates any hands-on assistance.

All a-Twitter about Technology

Picture this: I'm speeding up the learning curve while sliding down the slippery slope of new media. First, blogging. Next, LinkedIn, the business networking site. What could possibly be next?

What's next for me is twitter. Up until ~ 36 hours ago, I would've rolled my eyes and groaned if you asked me about Twitter. I would've said, "The kids today have way too much time on their thumbs."

Now, I'm seeing amazing possibilities and uses for this social media tool that provides 140 characters to answer the simple question, "What are you doing?" The answer is posted and then a universe of possibility opens up. While my brain is looking at the value of twitter for marketing and promotion, my heart is seeing the possibilities for building a virtual community for people of faith.

For one thing, all that unpleasant whining by church leadership about not being able to reach youth? It could all disappear "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" before the last trumpet sounds and the dead are "raised imperishable" (1 Co 15:52).

I have friends who leave what we call "Holy Spirit Moment" messages on my various phone answering devices. I'd certainly love to see one of these notes pop up on my computer screen as a tweet, especially during a stressful day.

Lots of possibilities and I'm sure more will become manifest as I become more conversant with this technology. Check it out, let me know when you sign up and perhaps we can tweet one another into greater consciousness about being here to love and serve You Know Who and one another.

I'm twittering at: http://www.twitter.com/MeredithGould


h/t to Publicity Hound, Joan Stewart for a great teleseminar featuring Warren Whitlock, co-author of The Twitter Handbook.