Loving the Real Thing!
We live in a culture now that is inundated with social networking. The popular thing isn’t so much about how many people you follow but how many follow you! Facebook, Twitter, and now even Pinterest allows people to follow you, even people that you do not know. I recently asked someone who was bragging to me that they had over 1000 “friends” on facebook, how many of those 1000 did they actually know, personally know that is. They said they didn’t know all of them, but they were trying to get as many “friends” as possible.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all about having some friends in my life. But to what extreme are we willing to go for friendships? How many of the friends that we have, know us and love us, for who we really are and not just because of who we know or the title that we display on our desk.
I think that there is a good percentage of people who fall in love with position and not the person. My husband held a position for quite some time that brought forth a fruitful ministry and influenced alot of people. In that time, we developed alot of relationships with people. Since leaving that position, we have wondered about those relationships and what happened to them. Did people love us for the “real” us or did they love us for the position we held?
When it comes to God, I wonder if we fully understand the “Real” Him. Do we love Him or do we love the benefits that come from His position?
Anybody who ever attended Sunday School as a child will have a definite image of Who God is…Loving, kind, a Good Shepherd. And ALL of that is Who He is …but sometimes He wasn’t always meek and mild:
“Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.” MATTHEW 21:12
This passage is sure to shake up the Sunday School image we may have. After all why would Jesus do things like knocking tables over and chasing people out of the temple?
Could it be because the REAL Jesus was strong, courageous and a man of great passions? He was a man Who could shake things up. His main concern was not to win popularity contests. He would not be concerned with how many He could follow on Twitter or Facebook. Rather, He was more concerned with honoring and glorifying His Father in heaven. His concern is getting the lost, the hurt and the confused to become followers. He is not pleased with the distractions that keep His children from Him.
Many times we seek the approval of people over the glory of God. Jesus became furious with the merchants and money changers that were abusing the people who came to the temple to worship. There will be days that we will face choices to either seek the approval of people or seek the glory of God. It is my prayer that when these challenges come, we will be able to stand for what we believe in and love Him for Who is.
It is important to have friends…but it is imperative that we are cautious who we follow. Not everyone will lead us to the REAL THING!
Amen, may I always seek after the real thing.
Amen to that Laurie! It is so true, often we connect with people and when hard times come, the friendship dies.
Thank you for the reminder to look for authentic friendships.
Lovely post Laurie. Thanks for the food for thought.