The joys and sorrows of Facebook

Hello!

A while ago I gave into peer pressure for the first time in my life (??!!!) and joined the Facebook world. Now, a few months later, apparently I have 160 friends! Friends seems like a pretty broad term, especially for those people who have 400 or 898 friends:-)

It's been interesting and fun to catch up with old friends and acquaintances from different eras of my life. Some are married and have kids, others look like they haven't changed a whole lot since I said goodbye to them 10-15 years ago. Some are still going strong with God, but I have to admit that there is a huge sadness in my heart when I read a lot of my friends' profiles. So many who once claimed to be Christians and where the things of God were their, at least spoken, priority seem to have changed those priorities. I'm not the Holy Spirit, and I can't say what's going on in peoples' hearts, and I realize that not everybody wants to put a big sermon on Facebook, but still....your interests, your spare time activities, the books you read, he music you listen to, your favorite quotes, what your friends write on your wall, etc. all of it a story. And - as far as I can see for a number of my friends - a sad story.

"All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost" the author of Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote. And I have to hold on this little nugget of truth. People might be running away from God, but he doesn't run away from them. People might be caught in mediocrity, suffering the consequences of poor (relationship) choices, etc., but God is the constant one. His patience doesn't end. His love never fades.

So I'll keep praying for my wandering friends, even those who have decided to cut contact with me, because I talk too much about God and the things of his kingdom...:-(

I know God is in control, and I know that he has plans and purposes even for those of his children who run far away. Thank God he is always out looking for us. And thank God he never gives up on me. I can always come back to him.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him" (Luke 15:20)

God bless you!

Torben