Settling, Or Living?

So this weekend, I set up a Facebook account. I’m still not sure if that was the wisest move; we’ll say that the jury is still deliberating. It’s not that I don’t see the value, but I spent hours familiarizing myself with features. It was very cool to see how many people I knew. I studied the culture (Yes, the missionary in me was hard at work). How do people communicate? What do they communicate? Why are they doing what they’re doing and what does that tell me about them?

I found myself searching for people I know here in PA as well as those I know back in CA. I guess I tried to “make friends” with too many of them the first day because Facebook got really mean and threatened me! I assume I wasn’t supposed to make so many friends so quickly. Although it took a couple days, I built my friend list to over 70 people. But are they really friends?

I remember telling our daughter, Courtney, when she was small that a friend wasn’t merely someone you knew by name. We go through life with lots of acquaintances, but few true friends. Jesus called His disciples His friends and told them that friendship is characterized by self-sacrificial love (John 15:13). The Greek word, agape, is a love that seeks the good of others even over its own good. This is the kind of love that God has for us, the love that brought the Son of God to earth to suffer and die.

Among my 70+, are there any friends? Yes, there are a few. There are also potential friends (I try to see what people can become in addition to who they presently are). Mostly, Facebook will give me acquaintances. I can laugh and joke, maybe even cry, with acquaintances, but it will take more than tapping on a keyboard for potential to be realized, for us to become friends. And deep down inside, while acquaintances are nice (and safe), I was made for something more. I was made for friendship.

How many of us are going through life at the acquaintance level, settling for a cheap substitute for what God planned for us? Christ said that He came to give us an abundant life (John 10:10). Some of our CONNECT group leaders are telling me that group life is showing them how mediocre their “fellowship” has been for years, even decades. The ones who have begun to develop real Christian friendship tell me that they will never go back to “faking it” again.

So, are you settling? Are you playing it safe? Or are you seeking faithfully after the God “who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Ephesians 3:20)? Take a chance. Invest fully in a CONNECT group today and make yourself available for God to show you a different kind of fellowship.