Romans 12.9-10
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
We are in serious need of relational commitment and discipline in our society. This is true in organizations, families, and the Christian community. In order to successfully navigate the challenges we face in the years ahead, we must operate from a foundation of deep relational commitment, effective communication, and uncommon collaboration and teamwork.
We need to be better—much better—in the way we go about our relationships, both personally and professionally.
“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (1 Peter 4.8-10)
Social media provides both an opportunity and a problem. The boom in social media has connected the world in ways no one could have imagined a generation ago. Now we have the ability, at the touch of a screen, to connect with anyone at any time. Yet, with all the modern conveniences, there are serious pitfalls.
Social media helps us connect, but we must be careful. As technology and digital connectivity continue to advance, we are in danger of expecting more from technology and less from each other. Social media can give us the illusion of companionship, but without the demands of true friendship. As one commentator has observed regarding digital connections, “People want to be with each other, but also elsewhere. People want to control exactly the amount of attention they give others, not too much, not too little.”
It is helpful to distinguish a primary connection from a secondary connection. A text, tweet, email, or IG post is a secondary connection. A face-to-face conversation is a primary connection. In the digital age, we are becoming increasingly skilled at secondary connections, and increasingly less skilled at primary connections.
We too often text each other when what we need to do is talk with each other. We have many online connections when what we really need are more face-to-face conversations. We tweet and retweet, follow and unfollow, friend and unfriend … but are we doing the hard work of building real relationships?
I am afraid we are in danger of sacrificing the personal for the technical.
Human relationships are incredibly rich, but they’re also messy and demanding, and we try to “clean them up” with technology. That’s a mistake. The discomfort that is a necessary part of true friendship is a blessing. The comfort that comes with pseudo-connections is deceiving and dangerous.
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5.11)
