Friday, October 26, 2012

con[DIS]nected

When we moved up to the Bay Area one of my friends in ministry sent me a Facebook message telling me about this guy up here that I needed to connect with.  It took a little while for me to land, and for us to figure out a time, but we finally met up this week.  I drove up to the city and connected with Matt.  We had breakfast, talked about life, shared about our different ministry contexts, shared our faith stories, bragged about how cute our kids are and talked about reaching the Peninsula for Christ.  Everything my friend told me about Matt was true.  He is a friendly guy, a catalytic leader and super rad (I added that).  I left very encouraged this week after connecting with Matt.

Later that day I was driving home from the office and I started thinking about how connected we are as a society.  Now this has been my rant before but I came to the conclusion that we are more connected than ever but more disconnected than ever!  

Let me explain that thought before you close this tab

I feel very connected when I am on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, my iPhone or Email.  I can FaceTime People, Skype, Message, Text, Tweet and have entire conversations with never opening my mouth.  We can decide solutions to problems, talk with relatives and look at screens but there is something about sitting face to face with a person.  



My hope coming from this post would be that you find more conversations to have face to face with people.  I am the person that uses almost every social media avenue so I don't think they are bad; I would just prefer to have more human interactions.  That conversation with Matt reminded me of that.  I love finding other people who are passionate about reaching lost people and Matt is one of those guys.

Now take it a step further.  What would it take in your life to really find true connections with people in your local area?
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25

2 comments:

nathan said...

Facebook and Twitter vs. in person relationship - it's like the difference between chewing fruit flavored gum and eating real fruit.

Gum is ok and all, but it's not really a long term substitute for the real thing. There's no significant nutrition or benefit in the gum, even though the experience of chewing fruit gum is comparable to the experience of chewing on fruit, and even preferable in certain contexts.

I think facebook and twitter have some social utility, but they aren't substitutes for in person connection.

Neal Benson said...

Nathan,
That is a great way to say it!

I think that Social Media is helpful but it always leaves me feeling like I wish I could hear the back story of what is going on. Or I find myself scrolling the timeline and wondering what people were thinking when they posted that.