No Greater Love Than…Facebook?

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

John 15:13

Anybody ever hear these lines:

“Love isn’t put in your heart to stay,

Love isn’t love until you give it away.”

Somebody was on the right track when they captured that sentiment.

You see, love cannot be fully realized in isolation.

We are a society that seems to work at isolating and insulating ourselves.

Sure, you can tell me you have over 100 friends.

Problem is, they are often only at the other end of a keyboard or computer screen.

Facebook is aptly named.

It gets your ‘face’ out there but your heart is safely sheltered behind a firewall.

Some of my sweetest times with God are when I am alone with Him in worship.

But I suspect that if that is all I did then those times of sweetness would wither up.

Jesus had precious ‘alone time’ with His Father but He also spent much time in ministry to others and in fellowship with His disciples; to the delight of His Father

You and I need both as well.

We need the alone time with the Father but we also need the fellowship of the saints.    

His love massaged into my heart in the alone times is worked out of me and into others in the corporate times we come together.

His love, as the fruit that it is, is also pruned and grown in the times of struggle and even heartache that sometimes accompany us in the relationships we have with others. 

Jesus didn’t say:

“Greater love has no one than this, that he would befriend you on Facebook.”

His love demands more of you and me.

It demands a ‘face-to-face’ and ‘heart-to-heart’ relationship with Him and with others.   

Note to readers:

With today’s post we begin year two of this blog.

It has been a journey of learning and faith.

Thank you for your faithfulness in reading.

My prayer continues to be that it serves as an encouragement to you on a daily basis; that because of it your relationship with Christ is strengthened.

For those who attend His Place, I pray that it regularly challenges you to go deeper into what God speaks to you on Sunday.