I have 1,051 friends. No, I didn't sit down and write down all the people I've hung out with over the years. It's just my tally on Facebook. (In fact, a certain friend of mine, who will remain anonymous, but whose name rhymes with Yenni Yutchins called me out the other day and accused me of being some sort of Facebook Creeper Stalker guy who pads his "friends list" just to look like a big shot.) Thus, the blog entry.
1,051. Sounds like a lot, but it's not that hard to get there when you've lived in 4 different states and served in 5 different churches over the years. You tend to accumulate a lot of "friends," especially when everyone and their grandmother is on Facebook these days (literally). It may seem like I might feel like I have all of the friends I could ever have, that my relationship tank continues to stay at the overflow mark. With all those friends, how could it not?
But here's the deal. There is an innate need in all of us for relationship and community. And this need can not be met through social networking. As much as I enjoy connecting with current and former students and old friends, nothing compares to sitting down face to face over a cup of coffee or a great sandwich and sharing life together.
Angie and I are on the tail end of the '09 Parkhurst Family Truckster Vacation Tour of Mid-America. We've spent two weeks reconnecting with so many old friends and our awesome Oklahoma family. It's reminded me of how blessed we are to have the relationships that we do in Ok, Tx, and La, and am encouraged to continue doing everything we can to invest our lives into the Georgia friendships we've been given.
(Guess I better get back to trolling the deep waters of Facebook, so I can trick some more people into being my friend, Zenni Zutchins.)
