Yesterday, I was on my Facebook page and was looking at my list of "friends." If you are not familiar with this, each person has a friends list. Before someone is added to this list, you must request their friendship or they must request yours. As a result, you end up with the most interesting list of friends.
What makes it interesting? Here, in this one place, are pictures of people I have known at different times and places in my life.
- Friends I graduated from high school with.
- Friends I have known at various churches where we’ve been.
- Friends of my children. Parents of my children’s friends.
- Friends in Waco and in many other places.
- Friends I have known for decades and those I have known only for a few months.
- Friends I have known through my work.
- Friends I know through this blog.
- Friends I have met through other friends.
It is amazing to see pictures of these people, some of whom I have not seen in many years, on a page with people I now see on a regular basis.
Yesterday, I was looking at these pictures and thought about some of these people I have interacted with at some level over the years. I thought about how blessed I really am.
What about you?
- Maybe you had coffee with a good friend the other day.
- Perhaps you called a friend yesterday whom you had not seen in years.
- Maybe you recently invested in your relationship with your daughter or son.
- You may have recently expressed to a friend how much he means to you.
Yes, I know that some people rarely, if ever, take the initiative to connect. In some relationships, you may feel as if you are the only one making the effort to initiate any kind of time together. Sometimes friendships just are not sustained over a period of time, for whatever reason. I realize that these can be real issues in friendships.
Nevertheless, I don’t want these issues to distract me right now from just how grateful I feel for certain people in my life at various moments. Unbelievable!
What about you? Can you look back at your life and see the incredible investment that some have made in you? Are there some people who have been significant encouragers?
Yes, I feel bad because some of these people are gone, with the Lord, or I’ve lost touch with them.
This is among regrets I have of the first order, that I didn’t try to keep friendships going longer. Not that I don’t have friends now. And we have some precious ones at the church we attend, particularly of the home group I’ve been a part of, and have led.
Facebook has definitely added some relational joy to my life… not to mention a handy dandy way of keeping up with birthdays.