What's the Buzz?

I started using Facebook last week. You know Facebook - the largest of many social networking sites you can use to keep up with your friends. I finally joined because I learned that one of my best friends was already there. So, I jumped on the bandwagon! I'm up to 15 firends now - more than I would have thought. It's pretty neat, and kinda fun.

But there's a hitch. Just like with email, there are many times that I go to check it out, and none of my friends has "done" anything. No status updates, no new pictures, no comments on the wall. And that's just dissappointing. But why? Because we are looking for relationship there, and relationship requires communication. You can post as much about yourself as you want, you can comment on your friends posts, but if no one responds, it means nothing. It's as if it never happened. And it's darn dissappointing.

That may be why so many people seem to be all about getting as many "friends" as possible. If you've got 300 Facebook friends, then surely when you look there to satisfy that (probably unrecognized) longing for relationship, at least one of them has said something to make you feel part of the group.

It feels like that with God sometimes, too. We take time to pray, read scripture, journal, and in essence, we're checking our God-mail, checking God's Facebook page, seeing if there has been any word, any response, any communication to let us know God's keeping up with us. Sometimes we do hear from God that way - sometimes in quite profound ways, sometimes quite frequently. But sometimes, it's the dissapponting feeling that nothing is new, no one has been on-line, we're alone on the web, God's not with us.

But that's never true. God is always with us. He always wants to be in relationship with us. He always wants to hear from us. But sometimes, I think he gets tired of the formal sort of relationship - the "I've got to stop what ever else I'm doing and sit in front of God" sort of relationship. He wants that, but He wants more, too.

He wants ALL of us. He wants us to turn our hearts to Him while we're cutting the grass or doing laundry or reading a novel or playing with the dog. He wants it all. And I think that sometimes, when we don't seem to be hearing from God through the formal channels, it's because He's showing Himself through the informal channels. We can't see Him because we're not looking and listening in the right place.

I sat in prayer with my Bible and journal, but I didn't hear from God there. Instead, I heard from him in the sweetness of a fresh juicy peach and an unexpected hug from my husband. How is God speaking to you today?