I woke up one morning to a cell phone vibrating. You know what I’m talking about. Bvvvvt. Bvvvvt. The thing starts to shimmy across the nightstand. Through blurry eyes I glared at the number on the screen wondering who in the world was awake at 7am and thought it was a good idea to call me. When I looked at the screen, however, I noticed something weird. The phone number had the normal 3-digit area code and 3-digit start to the phone number, but it ended with 6 digits. Some telemarketer I thought and I put the phone back down. As I lay there trying to go back to sleep, however, something about the last 6 digits kept bothering me. I knew this number.
Then it hit me. Someone was calling me from my Africa phone. I had left it with my best friend in Africa so I could use it whenever I return to visit and work. He must be trying to call! I proceeded to run down to my office, turn on Skype, and call the number back. Moments later I heard his voice all the way from Malawi, Africa, halfway around the world. Truly amazing. Never before in history have we been able to connect with people so quickly from such great distances.
A few days after this, I had the opportunity to visit family approximately 300 miles away in Ohio. My wife and I had taken our son to see his grandparents and great grandparents who live there. The trip took us about seven hours in pouring rain. Less than a full day of work and we had traveled the distance that used to take people weeks if not months.
Suffice to say, my life is full of relationships that wouldn’t have been possible thousands of years ago. Shoot, they wouldn’t have been possible 65 years ago when the great grandparents we were visiting were our age. Technology has truly changed our world in some amazing ways. We can connect with anyone, anywhere and we can reach exotic locations (not Ohio) anywhere in the world within a day.
We are made to do life together. We aren’t created to be detached.
As I got in my car today, however, I noticed something odd. I have spoken with someone halfway around the world, I have traveled hundreds of miles in less than a day to visit family, but I am going to pass by thousands of people on my way wherever I am going and not say a single word to them. I didn’t see my neighbors today. I didn’t talk with anyone on my commute as I sat at red lights. How odd. I am connected to people far away, but I am disconnected from the people who are closest.
As much as those distant connections are a blessing and are truly amazing, I need people to interact with each and every day in person. This is actually the way most humans have lived since the beginning of our existence up until very recently. People generally lived, played, worked, ate, and spent time with the same people in the same area day after day. From our original migrations as hunter-gathers to our lives in towns and cities, people knew one another well. They had to. There was nowhere else to go. There was no other way for their needs to be met.
I need people to interact with each and every day in person.
There is a reason for this. In the book of Genesis we are told that God made humans in God’s image. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is fundamentally a community. To be made in the image of God then means to be made in the image of the Triune community. We are made to do life together. We aren’t created to be detached.
However much technology has blessed us, it has also cut us off from some of the fundamental ways we need to be with one another on a daily basis. It’s great to have air conditioning and a heater in my car so I can ignore the weather, but driving everywhere also cuts me off from everyone else driving cars or walking down the street. Cell phones are great for keeping in touch long-distance, but if I forget about the flesh and blood person living in the same room, house, neighborhood, or city as me, it has actually hurt me more than helped me.
Acts chapter two says that the early church was devoted to meeting together daily. The Greek προσκαρτερέωwhich we translate as ‘devote’ carries the idea of putting intense effort into something despite any difficulties that may arise. Even back then it wasn’t easy for the community to stay strong and they didn’t have all the same distractions we have today.
What are you devoted to? How are your real-life flesh and blood relationships?
So, what are you devoted to? How are your real-life flesh and blood relationships? It’s so easy to use our cars and our technology and avoid the real-life relationships that we need. It’s much simpler that way. It’s not as messy. The problem is, we aren’t meant to exist apart from one another.
We are meant to know one another deeply. Do you know your neighbors? Co-workers? What about the people in your church who always sit on the other side of the room? What about your own spouse and children? What, or may I should say who, are you devoted to?
May you know and be known deeply. May you recognize distractions for what they are and devote yourself, in the full sense of the word, to those around you who are not only need you, but who will help you become the image of God you are created to be. May you make space today.
Grace and Peace.
