Facebook Blues
We can often get so caught up in the busyness of our
lives that our fellowship and relationship with the Lord suffers.
When that happens, we seldom stop and think how that affects and
hurts our Heavenly Father. I’ve recently gone through an experience
that gives me some insight as to how my Lord may feel when I pass up
opportunities to be in contact with Him.
I’m a recent member of facebook. I delayed in
joining, but when I kept learning of former co-workers and friends
who were members of facebook, I reluctantly signed on and joined.
For those who are not yet members, let me explain how it’s possible
to connect with friends.
When joining facebook, you are given the opportunity
to post a picture of yourself and add a profile. The profile can be
as brief or detailed as you want it to be. Also, you can set up
restrictions to control how much of your personal information can be
seen by others. However, your picture and your name are accessible
to everyone.
I have learned two ways to locate people. One is to
type in a name in the search box and click the search button.
Everyone who is a member of facebook with that same name, or a
variation of that name, will be displayed. If you find the person
you’re looking for, just click on either their photo or name, and
their facebook account will open up to you. From there, you can
submit an “Add as Friend” request to that person. When they receive
the request, they have the choice of confirming or ignoring it. If
they confirm you as a friend, their photo and name will then be
displayed on your list of friends. Therefore, if you were curious as
to who my friends are, a photo list of friends is available to you
to look through.
That’s the second way to locate a friend, by looking
through the friend list of someone whom you think might be a mutual
friend of the person you’re looking for. If you find the person
you’re searching for on someone else’s friend list, you can proceed
to click on their photo, and their facebook account will open. From
there you can submit a friend request, and continue as above.
It’s through this latter way that I found a number
of former friends with whom I had lost contact. One was a girl from
my childhood home church with whom I had become good friends during
high school. She had gotten married shortly after graduating from
high school, and I had no idea of her married name. So, searching
for her by her last name just wasn’t possible. My brother is one of
my friends on facebook, and one day my long lost friend’s cousin was
targeted along with my brother in a photo. Up to that point, I
hadn’t given any thought of searching for her cousin. Anyway, by
going into her cousin’s facebook account, I was able to scroll
through his list of friends until I found one that was a fit. To my
delight, after sending a message to her, she returned a message also
expressing excitement that we had found each other.
That has not been the case for a couple of friends
whom I found while scrolling through another’s friends list. Not
only did I submit an “Add as Friend” request to each, but I also
wrote both a lengthy note, exclaiming my pleasure to locate them on
facebook.
I waited expectantly for a return message. I just
knew they would respond back with a note expressing an equal amount
of excitement and pleasure that I had contacted them. Within a few
days, I received back a “Friend Confirmation” from both, but no
additional message. I thought to myself, “they’re probably busy and
waiting until they have a few extra minutes to write me a note.”
But, I kept waiting. And, I waited. To date, I have not received any
personal note from either of them. I am still waiting expectantly,
but I am very disappointed that I haven’t received even a
one-sentence acknowledgement that they received my note, or that
they were glad to hear from me.
Experiencing this disappointment made me think of
how disappointed my Heavenly Father must become when he has to wait
for me respond to Him. After all, He has written numerous love
letters within the Holy Scriptures to me. At times, He waits
expectantly for me to read His Word, and then to respond back to Him
of my love and my pleasure at reading His love message. Sometimes,
though, He waits. And, He waits.
As I was disappointed that these people I considered
friends couldn’t take a minute out of their lives to respond to me,
even if it was just to say, “So glad to hear from you,” so must
Jesus, whom I consider a friend, be disappointed when I don’t take
the time to respond to Him. In the end, He is hurt by my silence.
I don’t know why my friends haven’t taken the time
to respond to my personal messages, but I am not responsible for
their actions. But, I am responsible for mine. Therefore, it is my
desire to never leave my Heavenly Father, my Papa, waiting
expectantly for me to respond to His love messages. After all, why
would I want to?
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