WHEN the Internet is Holy... a Five Minute Friday Post

I love the #fmfparty Community that gathers on Twitter and all across the Inter Webs on Thursday nights and on Fridays... on into the next week, where we encourage and uplift... where we share prayer requests and praise reports... where we talk food and friends and we find support and kindred hearts and we are reminded that life is good and God is good and we are not alone... and then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts and our fingers do the talking tapping and we hit publish before we can second guess... we just let Him flow! 

Here is our Word Prompt for the day: WHEN

{GO}

I still can't get over last weekend... how God showed up and showed off and knit our hearts closer, tighter, made us even more kindred, as if we thought that even was possible... how He shifted and redeemed and healed and held us... and it all happened in homes and on couches together, but separated by state lines (and lines and lines, all the way from sea to shining sea... oh wait! You know what I mean!) States and Countries apart, distance untraveled and yet we were all together... bonded... (voxing!)

Yes... If:Gathering and If:Locals were happening all over the world and for whatever reason, we were all planning on watching it if we could, when we could, on our own.

But God... But the Internet...

(But Voxer!)

I decided to just put it out there on facebook, --how I was planning on watching the If:Gathering in Austin live streaming on my own... a few others chimed in that they were in the same boat and we decided then and there to watch it alone, together.  

Honestly, I thought it would be fun... there would be chatter and we'd visit a bit while drinking it in together. There would be laughter and encouragement - because that is just how we roll.

What I didn't really expect was how it felt when suddenly, the atmosphere changed and we all knew it.  We felt it when God made the internet holy and when He worked through Voxer and His Presence showed up, and His daughters were real... vulnerable and brave... and we knew - each of us - that this thread... this Gathering... this If:Voxer... it was holy ground and it was not going to end when the live stream shut down!

So we gathered Friday night... Logged on to the LiveStream page and charged up our phones...

We worshiped together, we prayed, we added people into our thread as they tweeted about watching alone or wanting to join in! 

We are Community... and we are Gathering to press in... to be reminded of truth... to be set free and set aright and turned around... to be filled up and sent out because at the heart of If:Gathering is the call to equip and unleash and oh my goodness, how there was an unleashing among us!

...and then, early Saturday morning, we did it again!

We logged on and charged up and pressed in together... we listened to messages of hope, of faith, of real-life-coming-in-hard-but-God-is-still-good-anyway! Some days we really need to remember the 'anyway' part! 

We grabbed our rocks and we wrote our Words... our next steps... we laid down our doubts and we prayed* together, "Lord we believe! Help our unbelief!"

We remembered that our God... He uses all things together for good.  "All Things" -- even our poor choices, our dark times, our struggles and battles... yes.  He uses those.

We remembered that our God... He is a redeeming God and He redeems time and He redeems hearts and hands and calls and relationships.  He redeems our faith, praise God!

And we remembered that our doubt, our fear, our knee-jerk reaction to keep quiet, to not ask for help, to slip back into shadows and lonely corners... our running from community to seclusion?  Yeah - those all have to go! 

We are meant for Community and we need each other... and when the internet is holy and God is moving, there is no need to be fake or surface.  I know many feel that internet friends are not the same... people assume people on the internet are photo-shopped and only the best version of their best days, but ya'll... when God makes it holy - none of that is true!

My internet friends are real and they dive deep and they share truth... they are beautiful and brave and I cannot wait to meet them all #inrl.

{STOP}

The Lord has been working on me lately, reminding me that much of my ministry, my call, in this season is based around the interwebs and it can feel less than, not enough, not 'real' - but let me assure you... the things that unfold online can bring freedom... can bring hope... can bring truth. And I for one am going to stop believing the lie that it is not real ministry! It counts... it counts because YOU count, dear reader! 

And He is after you... He is in hot pursuit of your heart and He will use anything and everything to grab hold of you!  He will use blogs and apps and the internet! And I am honored that maybe, just maybe, He will use me... my words... my little corner here in the world wide webisphere... to draw you closer!

* This was my Five Minute mark, but I wanted to complete my thought!

Five Minute Fridays gives us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click here to read what others have to say about "WHEN"


Oh ...the fine print: if you don't know what FMF is!  Five Minute Fridays have been hosted by Lisa Jo Baker.  This week we start gathering over at Kate Motaung's.  FMF is open to anyone, so to learn more about it - and to jump in yourself (the more the merrier!) or just to find a linky to see what everyone is writing about today - click HERE!  The idea is to simply write... for Five Minutes flat... no editing, no deep thinking - or at least REthinking, no spell check - just write! Let it flow! We all write using a prompt that Lisa posts at 10pm Thursday night (EST.)  I'm loving the community of amazing bloggers and the creativity that flows from these magical Five Minutes!

I am also linking up with the Community over at: