3 John 1: 12-15
12Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.
13I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink;
14but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face.
15Peace be to you The friends greet you Greet the friends by name.
As John concludes his 3rd letter, I’m thinking about face-to-face friendship. I know John talked about this in 1 or 2 and I like how he brings it up again (http://tiny.cc/keepntouch).
Today’s age of technology and the communication revolution makes it easy to be lazy and disconnect instead of keeping connected. We need to put forth effort in relationships. I’m learning this lesson myself. Some friends of mine had a get together this weekend and although they live a few hours away, I indulged their invite, if only for less than a 24 hour period.
I say this not to boast, rather to earmark the moment as me attempting to reach out of my laziness and act on my relationships instead of make excuses. They overly appreciated me showing up and it was time well spent. Overall, our relationship grew stronger because of it.
It’s a lesson I relearned in Guatemala. It’s about relationships. Everything else is a distraction. Certainly, particular things are required. Normal things in life require time, sacrifice, money, etc. but let us not lose sight of the fact that we are relational people. We try to act like robots sometimes but eventually we will fall apart because it works against our natural design.
Think about turning off that phone. Shut off your computer if you cannot just walk away. Make a point to set aside some face to face time with someone real, someone who misses you, someone who deserves you. For at the end of the day, all we have is each other.
