Social media has totally changed our world.
I know, this is earth shattering news, isn't it? Like you haven't noticed. But bear with me...I'm not about to write a whole post stating the obvious (but that would be fun, wouldn't it???)
I was watching the News the other day. This is odd for me. I don't watch the News. It's too depressing. As someone who suffers from anxiety, watching a whole hour of people dying and fighting and bombing and raping and shooting is just too much for me. I choose to not fill my mind with awful things. It mean that I'm sometimes the last to know certain *big* events (like, did you know Obama got reelected for a second term!! Wow, Way to Go, Obama!! Okay just joking, I knew that.)
Anyways, I think I was getting my nails done and they had the News on. Holy moly people, things have changed. They want you to tweet them. Twitter hasn't really caught on with me, it's too invested. Who has the time to tweet what they're thinking every five seconds?? We've already established my mind goes a mile a second, so I'd be switching it up like all. the. time. I wouldn't have time to do anything but tweet. The stress to be witty all the time, too - that would kill me. They want you to follow them on Facebook. They want you to send in videos from your iPhone or smart phone - they basically want you to do their jobs for them, I think. It's become much more interactive though, I guess in an attempt to stay relevant in a world where every answer to any question is just a Google away.
People use You Tube to post their *own* music videos and hope to be discovered. People publish their own books without the need for a editor or publisher (not always the best idea...but done none the less). People get University educations on-line. People meet their husbands/wives on dating sites. I even read an article about people using Craigslist for adoption instead of an agency.
People blog. I know, right? Totally foreign idea to me.
The amazing thing about blogging and following blogs is that you get to *meet* so many people from so many different walks of life. I have a follower from India!! I have a mentor in Washington. I have fellow mom followers. I have single women followers. I follow a single momma from Germany! I follow a 22 year old mother of 13 (!!) adopted children in Africa. Once a day or once a week, I am invited into their home and into their lives via my computer screen.
The written word has long been valued for its depth, its beauty and its power to move and convict its followers.
*Phew*
That was a long introduction to my point, wasn't it!?!?!
Through Facebook and through Blogger, I have been following the fight of two (now three) young children and their families who have courageously stared cancer in its ugly, evil face. One family is a childhood friend that Facebook reconnected me with, who's daughter, Julia, was diagnosed with a tumour in her nasal cavity. The second family, I've blogged about before, after finding his Mother's blog about her beautiful son Christian, who's tummy was riddled with tumours. The third is a little boy - I 'met' through a Facebook support page started for Christian - named Jayden who is fighting tumours throughout his whole body.
These three children and their families have changed my life forever. It is hard to imagine that your life could be changed by someone you've never physically met before, isn't it? Before the Facebook and Blogging and Twitter, there wasn't much of an opportunity for this to be the case. But my life has been forever changed for the better, because of three brave children. I love these children. I love their families. My heart rejoices with their triumphs and sinks with their set backs.
The faith that has been shown by these families in the face of utter devastation has touched my heart. I find with my perfect little life, with my healthy happy child, I cry out to God in desperation, "Where are you?? Why can't I feel you? Do you exist??? Are you there?" These families, in the face of an untimely death of their child, their baby, in the face of insurmountable odds against a miracle and complete healing, with doctor's saying, "All we can do now is wait...", what did they cry?? They cried, "God, you are here. We feel your presence. You are here."
My faith in God has grown more in the past few months because of these families than it has grown in the whole of my adult life. That is pretty significant. I read of a young five year old boy - dying of cancer, lying in a hospital bed, with so many tubes you could hardly make out where is body was - upon hearing a new worship song, raised his hands in praise. I want a faith like that. Jesus spoke to Christian and told him he would heal his body, "he told me three times" Christian whispered to his family. I want to be that close to Jesus, that I can hear his whisper in my ear.
It breaks my heart with sadness to say that Julia and Christian both died on the same day. I don't understand why God chose to take them so early. I know their families are beyond heart broken, and this makes me so sad. We were all praying for an earthly miracle, but Christian and Julia were both healed. They are in perfect form in Heaven, with no pain and no tumours, no tubes and no chemo. They touched more people in their short time here than many do in their whole life. I think God used them to teach us all about faith and love. People from all over the world followed Christian's Mommy's blog. People all over the world prayed for the first time, or the first time in a long time, that God would heal him. Some people (me included) had their faith renewed in a God they doubted.
Isn't that a wake up call to faith?
Doesn't it sound so much more appealing to face death with peace than with fear? While these families are mourning the loss of their children taken too soon, they believe without failing that these children are safe now, and free from the horrors of cancer. Julia can see now, with both eyes. Christian can run and jump with energy that was taken from him here on earth. If they had earthly bodies, their hair would grow back long and healthy and beautiful. I think it's important to recognize that cancer did not win.
I'm so sad that Christian and Julia died. I wanted so much for an earthly miracle so I could say, "See? See what God can do?" But their lives were a testament that so many of us will never get to experience.
And Jayden, he has people praying for him all over the world 24 hours a day. Every moment of every day, someone is praying for complete healing for Jayden, peace and strength for his family. There aren't many people in this world that unite people from all walks of life, all over the globe, but these three children did just that.
And I am forever changed.
Are you?
If you follow me on facebook, look for the open group, 24 Hour Prayer for Jayden and Christian.
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