Modern BelieverCulture Changes. God Doesn't.

Pastors are busy people. Parents are busy people. Students are busy people. Pretty much everybody is busy. There are enough distractions in life already, should the computer take up any more time than it needs to?

Some of us already spend hours upon hours on the computer, because that’s what we do. Building websites, researching, asking for help, giving help. Us geeks tend to live on the web, and over time, have learned a lot of little things that add up to save a lot of time. For example, I try to keep up with all that is happening on Twitter and Facebook. But instead of sitting at their websites and refreshing the screen all day, I keep Tweetdeck open on a second monitor (If you only follow a few hundred people, you can probably check every 30 minutes and not miss anything). Quick glances are all it takes, and familiar pictures draw my attention quickly to those I talk to most.

Those of you who spend hours on the computer, but half of it is playing Farmville on Facebook, well, you just need to cut back on the gaming.

Zen Habits put together 14 tips to browse the web faster (and get back to your Bible sooner). Here’s my 5 favorites.

1. Use a fast, minimal browser. [I highly recommend Firefox or Chrome, Internet Explorer is the opposite of fast and minimal]

2. Use tabs, not windows.

3. Learn keyboard shortcuts.

12. Clear most of your toolbars. [You really don't need 7 different search toolbars, in fact, you only need the one built into your browser]

13. 1password or KeePass. [I use LastPass, there is no other way to remember all of my passwords]

I love Twitter.

Twitter has connected me to thousands of people from around the world. There’s only a handful that I have meaningful conversations with day after day, but all the tweets are of value in one way or another. But in the rapid fire world of 140 character replies, are we always paying enough attention to how we respond to others?

Take Chris Pirillo. He’s a very well known geek, and he hadn’t been to Church in awhile. He was invited to one to speak about social media, and being a geek, he tweeted about it on the way home.

Visit his blog, read through the responses he got to a simple tweet, and think about how you respond when a non-believing friend tells you they went to Church.