Proverbs 18:24
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend
who sticks closer than a brother.
I have 960 friends on facebook and counting. Obviously, I can't keep up with 960 people in any intimate or deep way, it is not possible. We were made social beings, so it is good to be friendly and have many acquaintances. But when things get serious, we need a close friend, someone we know and who knows us. We need a person in our life that has remained by our side in good times and bad. A friend that has our best interest in mind and will always tell you the truth, even before we may know what is true.
When I was a singles pastor, it amazed me to see how so many people bounced from church to church. Just when they were getting close enough to know others and more importantly to be known by others, they would bounce. At its core, many are just not comfortable when people know them and can call them out about their stuff.
We have a choice: deep, open, and honest relationships or facebook relationships.
I don't think it's a choice...it's a both/and instead of an either/or. I have many relationships that have deepened as a result of Facebook. Especially being here, I've found FB to be a wonderful tool for developing deep, open and honest relationships. Of course, this is amidst many surface-level relationships. But that is the choice I think--who stays at a surface level and who do we choose to go deeper with?
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, people select whether they go deeper or not. My hunch is that you have to go through the many to get to the few that will mature into the deep, open, honest relationships that you are speaking about.
ReplyDeleteDear iProverb,
ReplyDeleteI would have replied sooner but I was on facebook.
Friend Blessings,
Mark