Grace and peace to you each. Hope you all are doing well. I am currently sitting on the beach writing this to you. I love the beach because it reminds me of the greatness of God. Seeing the water stop at a certain point when I know it should overtake us automatically ushers me into wonder! Also, it gives you a good reason to people watch LOL. Don’t judge me!
Today is my sabbath. It’s a day where I cease from things I consider “work” and I stop, contemplate, delight, and relax. It’s my favorite part of each week. It reminds me I’m human and that the world will move on with or without me. I’m here with one of my lil’ brothers in the faith and we are just going to enjoy today.
We were having a conversation that sparked today’s post. We were talking about how lonely a lot of people feel and how disconnected the world is although we can now reach each other in milliseconds!
Psalm 68:6 NIV “God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”
The passing of my momma was a huge blow. I am still adjusting to living without her. I realize the part I miss about her most was her presence. My mom was way more of a social media person than I was but she really made so many strong connections on there. When it came to her kids, she didn’t text or social media reach out, she called! I talked to her every day and loved every minute of it. Most of my longtime friends from my teenage or early twenties Demetrius, we call each other. We can talk for hours. The world is so not like that anymore. True connection feels so intimidating. We are so skeptical of each other now. We’ve bought into the idea of the “virtual world”. There are people who really feel that they know what’s going on with people from a social media post. I’m not villainizing it but I am saying “Wait! Hold up!”. I am in a weird age bracket. I was a kid in the ’80s, a teenager in the ’90s, an adult at the beginning of the 2000s and now nearing forty in the 2020s…..sheesh! I’ve been in the world without Facebook and Instagram and the days when we had beepers and house phones. I remember knowing people’s numbers by heart and now you can’t pay me to remember anyone’s number outside of mine. Yikes!
Psalm 68:6 alongside a lot of other verses shows us God’s heart for us. We are his people. We are his children. We live in a culture that’s so individualistic and we all really suffer from that whether we feel it or not. The world around us is self-preserving, self-protecting, and self-sufficient. We struggle to truly ask for help, to truly reveal what’s really going on. We’re afraid of each other. Look, I don’t know why I’m writing this nor do I have a solution for you outside of looking to Jesus and abiding in him. Truly abiding in him helps us understand the necessity of being with others. This world is not meant for us to be alone. I want to encourage us each to embrace the Family the Lord has given us. Especially for those of us in Christ! We need each other. Yea, it’s scary and people fail us but it’s still God’s plan.
Alright back to people-watching! Thank y’all for listening to my brain dump!
Until next time
Demetrius