1 Corinthians 16

I hate texting. I do it often every day. But between auto-correct and my stiff fingers on those tiny buttons, I don’t always end up sending the message I meant to say. Plus, you can’t read inflection. What I think is funny might read as anger or insult to the receiver. I hate that. But what I think I hate most about texting is the personal connection it lacks, the sound of a friends’ voice, actual laughter instead of reading LOL.

Ok, so yesterday I said I felt like I had gotten a hug from God. I GOT ONE TODAY, TOO! As I was writing the first paragraph, my phone rang. On the other end was the beautiful voice of a dear friend I’ve loved for decades. We live about 800 miles apart now, but for the last 20 minutes I was back in her kitchen, just gabbing over coffee about this and that and the other thing. We laughed the familiar belly-laugh over silly things, and shared some struggles we wouldn’t necessarily share with many others. No text could have done what that call did. Thank you God, for prompting my friend to call.

Paul knew how important face-to-face connection was. He wrote letters out of necessity. He couldn’t pick up the phone and he couldn’t be everywhere at once. But in his letters you can hear his longing to be in the physical presence of those to whom he wrote. That connection was important to him.

And whether we realize it or not, it’s important for us, too,

Our society has become more and more an isolationist society. We are all so self-focused we can’t even take a minute to stop and have a conversation with a parent or a child or a friend or an annoying scam artist. (Don’t do that last one. Don’t answer the call of a phone number you don’t recognize. Don’t do it!)

God created us to be relational. He said right from the start that it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone. It’s not good for us to be, either. Some of you are alone living in a houseful of people. You are on your phones more than you are interacting with those people. Shame on you parents whose children see you with one eye on your phone when you are with them. You might as well live alone. I’m not sure you’d know the difference.

Our families are disconnected. Our churches are, too. Online worship? What’s that about? If the Church is the body of Christ, why does his elbow or his toes think it’s ok to disconnect? That’s not a healthy body! We need you. We need each other.

Friend, hold onto that connection in your family. You might have to grab on tightly and fight the pull. Do it anyway. You might have to put down your phone. Or turn it off. That wouldn’t kill you.

Hold onto that connection in your church. Reach out. Invite. Grab coffee or knock on a door of someone who is pulling away. Don’t wait for someone else to make the connection. You do it.

Satan loves to separate God’s sheep from the herd. That’s where we are the most vulnerable. Satan loves to separate children from their parents. That’s where they are the most vulnerable, too. If you don’t keep a connection with your kids, it’s easier for them to make poor choices. We need each other. We need to hold on.

So I guess my hope is that we will put down our phones, eliminate screen time, and look at each other. Talk to each other. Touch each other. Laugh with each other. Cry with each other. Listen. Share. It’s what it means to be human beings. Let’s get that back.

Make a real connection with someone today.