From Yahoo News.

LONDON (Reuters) – Digital dumping is on the rise, according to a survey, with growing numbers of people preferring to use email and social networking Web sites to break up with their partners. Over one third of 2,000 people polled (34 percent) said they had ended a relationship by email, 13 percent had changed their status on Facebook without telling their partners and six percent had released the news unilaterally on Twitter. By contrast, only two percent had broken up via a mobile phone text. The rest had split up the old-fashioned way by face-to-face conversation (38 percent) and by telephone (eight percent). “Digital Dumping will soon take over when it comes to ending a relationship,” said Sean Wood, Marketing Manager for DateTheUk dating service for whom the survey was carried out. “It’s often easier, quicker and avoids any misunderstandings.”

I am a big fan of technology and believe that humans can use it properly to augment and enhance relationships, at least at a superficial level. But here is a classic misuse/abuse of technology to insulate us from embarrassment or to help us avoid unpleasant situations that we do not wish to face head-on.

I note with interest the comment above from Sean Wood about “digital dumping.” Easier? Avoids misunderstandings? Really? Sounds like an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for our own actions. Ending a relationship is hard enough. Adding insult to injury by doing it indirectly in a digital environment is frankly inexcusable and cowardly. Then again, I have no strong opinions on this matter.

From the AP. What a great hero.

LITTLETON, Colo. – The gunman was walking through a middle school parking lot and taking shots at students with a hunting rifle as terrified teenagers ran for their lives. He had just wounded two students and seemed ready to unleash more violence when a math teacher named David Benke sprung into action.

Read it all.

A fascinating perspective on the process of sanctification (the process of becoming like Christ). Check it out.

I think one of the most spiritually dangerous practices today is encouraging people—in small groups or in front of the church or even in print—to talk about how God has transformed them. They are told to explain how they used to have a bad temper or a problem with porn or were stingy or had one bad habit or another—and through prayer, effort, and grace, they have been changed. The formal glory all goes to God, of course, but the focus unfortunately is often on the self—on how I have been changed.

What’s interesting about the classic biblical testimony—Paul’s conversion (Acts 9)—is that it spends little space on transformation as such and a lot of space on what happened: an encounter with the gracious and resurrected Lord. When Paul repeats his testimony (Acts 22 and 26), his speech assumes a transformation—from persecuting Christians to proclaiming the Christian gospel—but does not focus on it as such. He does not say, “Look at how I’ve been transformed by the grace of God!” He is simply explaining why he now preaches in the name of Christ. The narrative structure of his story is his transformation, but the real subject of his story is Jesus Christ.

Has this been your experience?

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

—Mark 1:35-39 (TNIV)

Here we see a key to Jesus’ power: his prayer life. Being fully human, our Lord had to engage in the discipline of prayer to help him discern God’s will, jut like the rest of us must. I also love the dynamic of this story. Here we have Peter and his companions searching for Jesus. When they find him, they exclaim that, “Everyone is looking for you!” Indeed. Anyone who has ever gotten a taste of our Lord wants more. After all, he is life and who does not want life?

Sadly, though, there are some who are blinded to Jesus and consequently do not look for him. In this season of Lent, ask yourself if you are looking for Jesus (even if you have already found him). If you are not, ask yourself why. Examine your life to see if you are truly happy or if there is something in you (or your life) that is missing. Take a chance and ask Jesus to show you what that is. If you have a Christian friend you trust, ask him or her to help you in this endeavor.

Likewise, if your pursuit of Christ is only part time or half-hearted, ask yourself why. Examine yourself honestly to discover what in you is holding you back and then ask our Lord to help you rid yourself of those things so that you can grow in your relationship with him. After all, what relationship ever grows when one or both parties are only half-hearted about it?

If you are seeking Jesus with all that you are and have, and growing in your relationship with him, give thanks to Jesus for this grace and ask him to help you to continue to grow in grace.

Shed your light on us, O Lord, that, being rid of the darkness of our hearts, we may come into the true light which is Christ, the light of the world, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

If someone asks, therefore, why God allowed man to be tempted when he foreknew that man would yield to the tempter, I cannot sound the depths of divine wisdom, and I confess that the solution is far beyond my powers. [However], I do not think that a man would deserve great praise if he had been able to live a good life for the simple reason that nobody tempted him to live a bad one.

—Augustine, On a Literal Interpretation of Genesis, 11.4.6

Nothing is more excellent than the God-given gift of charity. This alone is what separates those who will be saved from those who will be lost. Other good gifts are given through the Spirit but what use are they without charity?

—Augustine, The Trinity 15.5.32