Twitter and Lent
OpenBible.info just published its annual list of what twitterers are giving up for Lent. The top ten are listed below:
| Rank | Word | Count | Change from last year’s rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 4297 | 0 | |
| 2. | 4060 | 0 | |
| 3. | Chocolate | 3185 | 0 |
| 4. | Swearing | 2527 | +1 |
| 5. | Alcohol | 2347 | -1 |
| 6. | Sex | 2093 | +3 |
| 7. | Soda | 1959 | -1 |
| 8. | Lent | 1493 | -1 |
| 9. | Meat | 1352 | -1 |
| 10. | Fast food | 1303 | 0 |
It’s interesting to compare the lists from 2010 and 2009. Does anything on the list surprise you (credit michele here)?
I don’t get it. I thought evangelicals had more to offer this poor world than shallow traditions.
The apostle Paul has told us in Galatians 5:”It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” He wasn’t just taking about circumcision here – he was talking about the harmful effects of legalism, and elsewhere in his epistles, the uselessness of asceticism in restraining sensual indulgence. Verse 16 continues: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
It’s not about giving up things. If you have been crucified with Christ, you no longer live, but Christ lives in you. Just let him live in and through you. That’s what our world desperately needs to see.