fan club and hope to receive an autographed photo in the mail. Those in the Hollywood limelight were unapproachable to the average folk, like myself. Times have changed since those days.
Now, if I like an actress or singer, all I have to do is follow their Instagram and I instantly know all about their life - where they eat, their kids and fur babies, their latest red carpet event and the trip they just took. This change goes beyond fame; when I meet someone at an event I speak at, or in a meeting at the kid's school, I can then go add them on Facebook or accept their request to friend me. Craig Groeschel makes note of the use of the word "friend" on Facebook in his book, "#Struggles: Following Jesus in a Selfie-Centered World." Its true, we get fed a subconscious lie that we are adding to our friends whenever we add someone to that list of connections.
The internet has tricked me. Its tricked me into thinking I have a lot of friends. Truth - I do have a lot of friends, but as I've aged, I have way more acquaintances than friends. Friend - you know the person that is there when life has got you down or pops the champagne when you conquer that mountain you climbed. A friend isn't just someone who is connected with you on Facebook or follows you on Instagram.
Because here is the thing - knowing something about someone doesn't mean we know them! Its awkward sometimes to stand next to a mom at pick up that I have never sat and just talked with, but I know all about her family and that hard time she went through last year, because Facebook told me.
The same can be true for people like Candace Cameron Bure. I feel connected because I watch her on Hallmark Channel and I follow her feed, but I have NEVER met the woman. She has no clue who I am. We are not friends. Its time for a reality-check. Can you distinguish between your true friends and just people you know about? I have to remind myself of this truth as I scroll the feeds - I DON'T KNOW YOU!!! This doesn't mean, there aren't acquaintances that I'm pursuing friendship with or friends who have grown and gone their own ways that I stay connected with, because this is why I love social media!
The danger comes when we live online and forget to maintain relationships in real time. Doing so will lead to loneliness and depression and often worse. The hole in people is what often fuels the horrible stories we read in the news.
This is also true in our spiritual life. Knowing about Jesus, doesn't equate to knowing him. Knowing him is accomplished in the same way we know people around us - spending time together. I sit and talk to God about my life, about the Bible and while he doesn't speak in words to me, he speaks back. He connects with me through moments in life where I see my heart fulfilled or when I got that thing that didn't mean anything except that he heard me. He speaks to me through the Bible, a book that has been around forever, and yet can speak to my specific day.
The light at the end of this tunnel is that its easy to fix. Life offline as much if not more than you do online. Meet someone for coffee, get to know a new friend and put the work in, to make that Facebook "friend" a real-life friend!!! Same with God - he makes it easy to come to him and its never too late to start.
Do you have the proper balance between your online and offline self? Do you need to adjust or maybe you got this down and its your turn to share it with someone else? Checking in with ourselves is a must for a healthy life! There is always a take-away. So go and get it!
