Let us tweet…

In a blog post yesterday on the traningzone blog, David Windle asks the question as to whether Twitter has replaced prayer:

People in prayer once felt (or still feel) that their thoughts were swarming up in the stratosphere, being overheard by a universal being, a bit like that little Twitter bird.  Perhaps praying was the forerunner of Tweeting, or perhaps Twitter has filled the gap left by prayer.

I don’t believe that prayer is all about giving me meaning, nor that it has been replaced by Twitter. Prayer, for me, is more a place than a practice. It is a clearing in the forest of busy-ness where God beckons me to come. It is a level patch of ground where this imperfect man and his perfect creator look each other in the eye.

That said, I believe that social media such as Twitter has created new forms of human connection which may serve the practice of prayer. In a matter of moments a tweeted need for urgent prayer can be, literally, passed around the world. Pleas for help, which may be couched in a religious setting as prayer requests, can be picked up on by the twitterati and used either as fuel for prayer or an invitation to encourage, help or advise. Since my social media world has people of many faiths and none within it, I often put out a request for support or ‘prayer if that is what you do’. In doing so, I am not selling out on my Christian distinctiveness but inviting connection across credal divides.

David Windle goes on to say that the best communicators are those whose communication ‘makes others feel the most meaningful’. On that we can agree.

Who are you affirming on Twitter today?