Facebook or Friends

A few weeks back I wrote a post about loving Jesus more than Facebook, and I committed to pondering the issue on a personal level. Here is my conclusion: I do not love Facebook more than Jesus, but I think Facebook might be creating a bit of a stumbling block between me and making new friends (which, although it is a different kind of problem, is still quite unfortunate and grave). Seriously.

7 months ago we moved to a new city and began work in a different church. I kinda thought I'd be like a magnet and some new BFFs would just find their way to me without much intentionality or effort on my part. Amazingly, that has not happened. And I think its because of Facebook. No, really, I think its true. When God made me He gave me this intense need for friendship and community. I love being with friends, having fun, analyzing life together. . . but who needs friends when you can log on to Facebook at any given hour and fill that hole with incomplete but somewhat satisfactory interactions with people who were at some point in your life 'close?'

If I didn't have Facebook to turn to when I needed some relational connection I think I would have been more intentional about making time and reaching out. . . I think I'd have more friends if I didn't have Facebook.

Weird.

Anyway, I'm going to do a little experiment. We'll see if I'm faithful. . . The plan is that for 1 month I will not log on to Facebook more than 2 times a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening (well, now that I read that it sounds a little ridiculous. . . for heaven's sake, how often was I checking Facebook before?). My hope and prayer is that by the end I'll have found deeper fulfillment in real human contact; that I will have made some actual friends.

There is nothing spiritual about this plan. . . just me peeling back another layer so you can see what is real. I recognize that it might sound a little ridiculous, but you know what? I am totally ok with that. =)