Love is...more than 140 characters

Unless you've been living under a rock, you are no doubt familiar with the current trend in social networking.  Many of you are plugged into Facebook and Twitter, where you can wax poetic about your life and thoughts in about 140 characters.  Some of you even have an unhealthy obsession with such sites, feeling it necessary to tell everyone EVERYTHING, from what you're eating to your bathroom habits.  Please, consider this an intervention!

Many times I'll be on Facebook and will get so caught up in checking out the interlocking lives of my friends, that a time (or five) I've even found myself looking at pictures of people and families that I don't even know (don't judge me...you know you've done it).  The truth is, that many Americans have become increasingly voyeuristic (uhhh...stalkerish?) in our attempts to connect with others.  We "friend" people from our past, who we were sure we would never see again.  We make comments on people's pages that we never hang out with, or plan on seeing...people with whom we will never have a "real" conversation.

It's true, human beings were created for relationship.  After all, the biblical narrative is the story of relationships, between people and God, and each other.  Jesus even spoke of the importance of such deep connection when he said that every spiritual principle hinges on a love for God and a love for others (Matthew 22:37-40).  However, it seems that we're placing less and less importance on authentic relationships and instead, investing much of our time in only surface connections.  Cameron Strang recently wrote, "real influence and connection happens in more than 140 characters."  We were created to go deeper in our relationships...to move beyond such shallow connections...to a place of love.

Please, don't misunderstand.  Enjoy your tweeting.  But, take the time each day to lay down the Blackberry, shut the laptop, power down your PC, and discover that people are more than a mere status update.