Hidden in Plain Sight
“F2F.” Do you know what that means? “Face to face.”
There is a new wave of social networking that can cause us to become people who hide in plain sight.
In this socially connected world, people are still not connected. Divorce rates are the same. Families are still breaking apart. Greed in America is at its highest peak and everyone is still looking out for number one. People now have a new depression: they get depressed because there is no one wanting to be friends with them on Facebook.
This world of social connectedness can never be a substitute for F2F — face to face.
I want to challenge you today. When you see this social networking phenomenon, do not run away from it, but use it to motivate you to go face to face with people. Otherwise, it will have a tendency to draw you away from people.
Exodus 33:11 says something very interesting about God’s meeting with Moses:
“The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.”
Where are friendships made? They are made face to face. So, in the midst of this social networking, I want us to indeed be a people who are networking the way the Bible says. And God even created us that way. He sets an example: He could have communicated with Moses any way in the world, but He decided to do it face to face.
If you catch this, it will transform your life. How important face-to-face is, especially in this era where everything is going another way.
God created us to be social; He created us to connect. He created us to be friends. When you isolate someone in solitary confinement, they actually go crazy. God created us to be connected.
- Everyone Wants to be Connected
We need each other. It is how we were designed.
“We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other” (Rom. 12:5b).
We all belong to each other. That is how God created us. But looking at the world today, we are not very good at it. We have broken relationships and shards and collateral damage everywhere. It is because we are not good at maintaining relationships. Even though we know that it is good for us to maintain relationships, it is difficult.
God is about connecting. We were developed and designed for connecting.
- Become Good at Repairing Broken Relationships
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9).
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God. In other words, you will never look more like your Father God than when you are making peace and when you are repairing relationships.
The Bible is saying that when you and I are doing what we can, we should not move away from relationships or not hide in plain sight from everyone. We should go into face-to-face mode to repair broken relationships. That is exactly when the world says, “You look just like God,” and the world needs to see God a whole lot more than it needs to see us.
- There’s Nothing as Powerful as Building a Long History with People
Most of the time, we have a short history with people. We cut one another off and we dispose of relationships so quickly, especially in this cyberspace world of social networking, where no history is needed and no commitment is necessary.
God is saying that if we are going to have friends, then we need to have face-to-face interaction and we have to be able to develop a long history. Nothing is as powerful as that.
“Let your forbearance be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand” (Phil. 4:5).
You will need forbearance and endurance to overcome the frustrations that will come with any new relationship. But there is nothing as powerful as having a long history.
In this new cyberspace generation, work hard, face-to-face. And when you do, your life will thrive, for that is how God created us. That is how He is with us.