Monday, December 14, 2009
Snail Life
Dan Edelen bemoans the pace of modern life.
For example, Dan greatly bemoans Facebook, and I agree with him that Facebook is no substitute for genuine face-to-face meeting. However, properly used, Facebook is a marvelous planning tool and adjunct to the operation of a small group or other group endeavor.
His comment that a small group went of summer hiatus becasue everyone was too busy says as much or more about the small group than anything else. If the group was working really well, it would be a priority in the middle of all that business.
See, what I am thinking is this - the problem is not the pace of our lives, the demands of our jobs, the latest social technology, the problem is us and how we handle and use those things. Relationships cease to function when we cease to work at making them function.
It is not surprising that we do not work hard at relationships, they are risky things. We can get hurt in them. I might even argue that in a sinful world, we usually get hut in them. We can hide in our computers and business and avoid the pain, or we can go out and risk being hurt.
The other thing I think is that Christ set a precedent here. We were not holding up our end of the whole relationship bargain, so He incarnated - reached out in a spectacular way. And frankly, He was rejected, even to death.
IF you are feeling a lack of relationship, that's my question for you - are you reaching out, and when rejected, are you reaching out again?
The world is a sinful place, always has been, always will be (well until the very end). Our job is to figure out how to be good, relational people in a sinful unrelational world. That is what it means to be a Christian.
I’m also concerned that the speed of our lives is out of control, as several posts here on that subject will also attest.I tend to agree with Dan here generally, but not specifically.
For example, Dan greatly bemoans Facebook, and I agree with him that Facebook is no substitute for genuine face-to-face meeting. However, properly used, Facebook is a marvelous planning tool and adjunct to the operation of a small group or other group endeavor.
His comment that a small group went of summer hiatus becasue everyone was too busy says as much or more about the small group than anything else. If the group was working really well, it would be a priority in the middle of all that business.
See, what I am thinking is this - the problem is not the pace of our lives, the demands of our jobs, the latest social technology, the problem is us and how we handle and use those things. Relationships cease to function when we cease to work at making them function.
It is not surprising that we do not work hard at relationships, they are risky things. We can get hurt in them. I might even argue that in a sinful world, we usually get hut in them. We can hide in our computers and business and avoid the pain, or we can go out and risk being hurt.
The other thing I think is that Christ set a precedent here. We were not holding up our end of the whole relationship bargain, so He incarnated - reached out in a spectacular way. And frankly, He was rejected, even to death.
IF you are feeling a lack of relationship, that's my question for you - are you reaching out, and when rejected, are you reaching out again?
The world is a sinful place, always has been, always will be (well until the very end). Our job is to figure out how to be good, relational people in a sinful unrelational world. That is what it means to be a Christian.
Technorati Tags:relationship, pace, incarnation, reach out
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
