Skip to main content

Friendship: Reality or Virtual Reality?

I have all kinds of friends on all kinds of levels.  I see them as serving different purposes... believing that God put them in my life for different reasons and different seasons.  Likewise, I am in theirs for a reason, and, perhaps, for only a season.

 I believe God did some of His best creative work when He created friendship.  Not just so we can have somebody to refer to as "my friend"... and if we want to "gain some points," so to speak, we refer to them as my "long-time friend"... and of course all of that is relative.  I may have known someone for a year and feel like I've known them all my life.  I'm thinking right now of someone I've only known, really known, for a few months, and yet, I honestly consider them a "dear friend."

 Of course, there are folks with whom I've been acquainted most of my life... am tickled to see them, hope to see them again, but I can honestly say that life's circumstances haven't called for a close relationship with them on a regular basis.  We wouldn't likely sit down and bare our souls to each other, but we would enjoy talking, remembering, and being glad to be in each other's company. We're important to each other.  This is good!

 All of our acquaintances/friends are important.  Let's just be careful to accept them for what they are... realistically.  Probably, if we've only seen a person on Facebook, they aren't our best friend.  Best friends are the people we call when we're sick and in need of help and comfort.  It is important to remember the boundary between reality (people, things, experiences we physically touch, feel, spend time with, etc.) and virtual reality (persona, images, words on a page used to portray an idealized verson of things and people).

 Let's not allow social media to blur the differences in our relationship roles.  Instead, let's celebrate, with clarity, all those God has allowed to be a part of our little worlds, and thank Him for the opportunity to affect others, however that turns out to be.  Afterall, if we find that we're forcing the issue in a perceived relationship, with little or no reciprocation from the other person, chances are pretty great that we've missed God's mark for that person's role in our life.  That frustration can turn to obsession which in turn becomes idolatry, but that's a topic for another day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God The Modern Father

   These are hard days.  It's tough for ministries.  It's tough for churches.  It's tough for parents.  It's tough for men, and it's tough for women.  It's tough to know who you can trust and who you can't.  It's tough to weed out fact from a preponderance of fiction.  In general, life is hard.    Did you know the Bible promises that life will be hard?  In a recent conversation with Ann about the overall decline of the church... why congregations take off and then systematically shrink and ultimately dissolve... I believe the Lord dropped a relevant truth into my heart.  It's not anything I haven't said before, but it is in a different context.    I'm seeing a trend in making converts without discipleship.  And, in the cases where discipling does take place, I fear there is some error in the teaching which could, in very large part, be responsible for the decline of the American church. ...
3 comments
Read more

Courteous Listening

The act of being courteous takes very little effort. I’m one of the worst to get involved in what is going on at that moment in my life, probably trying to figure it out, fix it, find a solution….you know, MOVE ON WITH IT.  All the while, I frequently miss what’s happening right in front of my face. When we stop and think about it, a lot of us probably come across as disinterested, impatient with, and/or bored by what others are saying.  In politeness we nod, maybe touch an arm as if to say, “I hear you.”  I know a lot of the time we’re sincere, but more often than not, we’re probably thinking about the next thing on our own agenda forgetting what we’ve heard only five minutes later. If I’m thinking about this, the light bulb may be going off in your head, too.  Maybe all of us can put forth a more concerted effort to be effective listeners and be as truly attentive as we try to make people believe we are.
Post a Comment
Read more

No Matter What

Several years ago a friend shared with me that his route to work every day took him through a toll booth....and he tried to always choose a certain booth. This is because the gentleman manning that booth was an elderly man who always had something "bright and sunny" to say to him. Every morning my friend would hear "Have a good day, no matter what!" Now, there were days my friend drove up to that toll booth with zillions of questions in his head of how he was gonna make it through a challenging day that was always before him when he arrived at his workplace. But he just kept those words in his head...and heart..."Have a good day, no matter what". Now, that's a choice, isn't it? "No matter what"???? I don't know about you, but I honestly don't find that coming naturally to me...it's a struggle to find sunshine on those cloudy, dreary mornings...'cause it just doesn't show up in my eyesight. But, that's w...
3 comments
Read more