Even a fool is thought wise if he.....

keeps silent...

Silence.

It's a rare thing these days.  Gone are the days of sitting on the front porch, sipping iced-tea and listening to... nothing.  Maybe there was radio, the Bible, some books and a sermon on Sunday.  The newspaper let you know what was going on in the world and what other people thought about it.  The dinner table let you know what was going on around you, and what the people around you thought about it.

And that's what mattered.

I'm not going to go into a nostalgic treatise of  how good the good 'ol days were.  We have opportunities now, that we didn't have then, to connect with and touch people's lives for the better.  We have new tools for spreading the Good News in word and deed.

But at what cost?

How much noise is too much noise?

John Dyer at Christianity Today writes on this issue much more intelligently than I ever could.

Here is an excerpt:

"What few of us realize is that when we press those "Publish," "Post," "Comment," and "Send" buttons, we are making the shift away from merely "believing" truth and stepping into the arena of publishing that belief. In doing so we are effectively assuming a position of leadership and teaching that prior to 2004 was not available to us.

James warned us, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1, NIV1984). James goes on to graphically portray the incredible power that our tongues have both to praise and to curse especially in the context of teaching. He then says, "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life." (James 3:13). Solomon echoes similar wisdom, "Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent" (Prov. 17:28).

Yet Facebook and Twitter do not encourage this kind of self-restraint. In fact, they encourage an opposing value system. Social media relentlessly asks us to publish our personal opinions on anything and everything that happens. There is no time for reflection in prayer, no place for discussion with other flesh and blood image bearers, and no incentive to remain silent.

You must declare your position, and you must declare it now.

We convince ourselves that by answering the questions social media asks us we are standing for truth alongside the great leaders of the church, but slowly and subtly as we respond to the prompts of our phones rather than our Bibles we begin to worship the false gods of immediacy, distraction, and celebrity in the Temple of Lord Zuckerberg. If you don't think the value system of technology affects you, ask yourself, If it was 2003 and some author wrote some book questioning some doctrine would I have felt compelled to publish my thoughts?

The result is that a million heresy charges isn't cool any more. You know what's cool? A billion heresy charges."

You can read the article in it's entirety here:  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/marchweb-only/bloggers.html?start=1

For those of you that know me (and my heart), you know that, personally, I have been struggling with the place of social media in my life and the life of my family.  Personally, I have been guilty of using it as a soapbox, and one that I am not qualified to stand on.  This is something I have known long before reading John Dyers compelling article. 

This blog was originally intended to help us stay connected to the people we love and left on the East Coast.

It has carried our story, my gratitude list and some creative writing... all worthy of the accounting.

At times it has carried dross and chaff as well.

Going forward, As Far as the East is From the West will continue to be a vehicle of sharing my gratitude to the One Most High and maybe some stories from the story He has written for us, the Liechty Family.

I will save my other musings, questions and deeper ponderings for those that can challenge and sharpen me face-to-face... heart-to-heart.

The Truth is too important for me to try to sell it in the bits and pieces that I think I've got figured out.

Peace.

Kara