It's no wonder that people feel isolated these days.
Have you heard about the Burger King challenge? They offered a free Whopper to anyone who be severe the sacred bonds of facebook friendship to 10 people.
The campaign boasted of ending 234,000 friendships overall. they ended the campaign rather than tweak it to fit the Facebook policy, but for some the damage had already been done. One woman, a stay at home Mom in Arlington, VA. found that when she angrily deleted a lifelong pal after a falling out, she started to really regret it, and now wonders if they will ever speak again.
The question for me is "Is this what friendship has become?
Something that can easily be erased for the sake of a "hamburger?"
No wonder our culture takes 7 times more anti-depressants today than it did 25 years ago.
Contrast this scenario to what is taking place in one of Missio Lux' Communities: the Peace Seekers. This community is comprised of stay at home Mom's who are taking steps towards investigating who Jesus is and what it looks like to follow him.
One of the emphasis' of this community is learning to care for one another.
The leader was elated this week when one woman told her story of having a child with rather severe disabilities. Many of the women in the room began to cry as they empathized over her challenges with her son. They began to form ideas of how to lighten her load: they could bring dinners, they could raise money for the professional caregivers so she and her husband could have a night out, they could pray for her...and on and on it went.
The Bible speaks to this kind of care: Galatians 6:2 "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
These women weren't hiding behind their computers wondering how to earn more hamburgers, they are reaching out to follow the way of Jesus, picking up one anothers' burden for a time so that they can rest along the journey of life.
Friendship, it's here to stay where Missio Lux is concerned.
1 comment:
I question where we are as a society when deleting someone from Facebook or any other online site or e-mail list is the end of a relationship (After disagreeing with a co-worker on a issue related to the church, I "discovered" that he dropped me as friend from Goodreads. You see online relationships are much easier to end. No more difficult face-to-face encounters. Just with a click of the button and you're out of my life. I found this to be a really immature move, actually). I do not consider Facebook to be the cornerstone of my relationship with others. Maybe we need to rethink relationships and how healthy ones are formed. Though technology is great, it does have it's limitations. Am I only your friend if I'm in your list of online friends? I would certainly hope not.
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