Saturday, December 18, 2010

More Then Just A Facebook Friend


Post written by Chris at "A Cloudy Mirror"

I'm sure this has never happened to you before.

You meet someone at a party or some other event and when you get home, you have a friend request on Facebook from this random person with whom you had a five minute conversation. Do you accept or reject the request? Thankfully, there's always the third option. You can ignore the request entirely and hope the person forgets about you. Not that I've ever done that before…


Now if you're anything like me, there are probably a few people on your "friends" list that you hardly see. Maybe you don't even talk to them at all. You'll check out some of their photos and comment on their status updates, but you don't really have an active friendship. You may know a lot about them, but you don't really know them. At the heart level, you have no idea what's going on inside.


If there's one thing that we as humans crave the most, it's relationship. Part of the reason why Facebook is so appealing is because we all want to be connected. We want to know what's happening in people's lives. Social networking has enabled us to stay in touch with hundreds of people with only a few clicks of the mouse. But to what extent can it really help develop authentic relationships?


For the longest time, that's the way it was between me and God. He was just a Facebook friend. I first accepted his friend request when I was only five or six. Then I began following his updates. I read all about the amazing things he had done through people like Joseph, Moses, and David. I talked to God occasionally, but I really didn't get to know him all that well. I knew a lot about him, but I didn't know him. I didn't know his heart.


Over the last eight months, I've come to know God so much more intimately. As he's revealed his Father heart, I've begun to understand the width, depth, and height of his love. It's not about what I can do for him, but about what He has done for me through his son Jesus. I don't need to perform for God because he already accepts me. And I don't need to worry about the crap that life throws at me because I know that Father will take care of me.


God doesn't just want you to know stuff about him… but to truly know him. To know how much he loves you. He wants to be more than just a Facebook friend.