Today was one of those days where I felt attacked on every level.
Attacked on patience—or lack thereof.
Attacked on my energy—or lack thereof.
Attacked on my joy—or lack thereof.
Most of all, attacked on my friend life—or lack thereof… at least this is what the enemy wants me to believe.
Right now I have precisely 697 friends on my personal Facebook account (which I think very few even “follow” my feed because I’m one of those mom’s who posts a zillion pictures of her kids). Another 200 or so on my personal Instagram account. I also have a larger following of friends I’ve “met” through my R&R community I’ve created on Instagram and Facebook. And a handful of other friends in my real life that don’t even have social media accounts (yes sounds crazy I know). Honestly that is already WAY too many friends for this small-town-raised-girl to handle.
We get sucked into the lie somehow that we think we have no friends. That no one cares about us. Which is exactly what the enemy wants us to think. To believe we are alone amidst our sea of endless friends.
Or maybe you are thinking, girl, I honestly have NO friends in my life. Nada. Not one. To which I will tell you, “Don’t give up! Keep investing into others, and they will eventually invest into you. The Niagara Falls of Friends is just waiting to burst through your door… as soon as you open it (er… yourself up) first to let them in.”
And really it shouldn’t be about having the quantity, but having quality friends in our lives. I can share from personal experience how true it is that a few quality friendships far outweighs and far outlasts the quantity.
I think this loneliness can stem from comparing ourselves to other friends of ours who have like 1,526 friends on Facebook or 3,428 friends on Instagram and somehow we think we are a nobody compared to them. Or we just keep comparing ourselves to someone with higher and higher numbers of friends than our own “following” or network, which is bound to make us feel less than… or lonely.
WAKE UP! You are NOT alone.
You have no reason to feel isolated from others in this crazy interactive networking world. There are people out there just aching for a phone call from a live person on the other end asking how their day went. Or does that now seem odd to you now? To make a phone call to a friend?
Do not listen to the enemy’s voice slithering around your thoughts. Take your thoughts captive to Christ. The absolute truth that you are NOT alone. Bring your lonesome heart to God with your requests for deeper friendships. And maybe, just maybe… ask Him to become the fullness of the friend you need so you will never be lacking again.
Also be careful not to spread yourself too thin among friends. Keep a few core friends close to your hip and don’t worry about not being able to connect with the rest. It’s nothing personal. Don’t feel guilty. It’s simply natural to establish boundaries and priorities around the few friends you are able to invest in, and desire to connect with on a more regular basis.
Remember you are far from lonely in this vastly social world we live in through our fingertips. Yet I think we’ve just forgotten how to engage properly. Let’s invest instead of ingest friendships into our lives.
