Spending Our Time with the Wrong ‘Book’?

Have you ever thought about how much communication has changed over recent decades? Long ago in a land far away – or so it seems – families would gather around dinner tables nightly to review the day. Neighbors sitting on front porches would greet each other as dusk drew near. They’d also enjoy friendly impromptu visits across an adjoining fence.

 

These days, if families gather at all, it’s usually around the big-screen TV. Or accompanied by their ever-present smartphones. Many homes don’t have front porches; instead, we huddle inside, enjoying the air conditioning during the warm months and the heat when it’s cold. Sadly, in many instances we don’t even know our neighbors, let alone call them friends.

 

Speaking of friends, increasingly folks can’t identify more than a few. We have “friends” at work, but those friendships typically don’t extend beyond the workplace. Even in church settings, most relationships go no deeper than, “Hi, how are ya? I’m fine. Good to see you.” 

 

We connect with “friends” via social media, but they’re people we wouldn’t recognize if we passed them on the street, the grocery store or the mall. And yet, we spend countless hours keeping up with social media friends. If we’re not online for very long, we may start to suffer from FOMO – fear of missing out. We don’t want to be the last to know when someone’s on vacation, what they had to eat, a joke they shared, or the emotional rant they posted.

 

If only we possessed the same enthusiasm for communicating with God. In a recent message, our pastor made this sage observation: “These days everyone is on Facebook, when their face needs to be in THE book, the Bible.”

In homes where people profess to be Christians, it would be unusual not to find at least one Bible. Often, there are more than one, even in different translations. But if we were to compare their time in the Word of God with time spent on social media, the difference might be startling.

 

My desire isn’t to shame anyone. I get it. I’m sometimes guilty of it, too. Things happen so quickly these days. The tidbits of information we can gather on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Parler – whatever your medium of choice happens to be – come at lightning speed. There’s always the temptation to check out the latest. On the other hand, the Bible has pretty much been the same for hundreds of years, except for the occasional “new and improved” translation or paraphrase.

 

But how often have you heard about someone whose life was changed, even transformed, by what they read on social media? On the other hand, I know thousands of people, many that I’ve written about in one way or another, whose lives were turned upside-down after encountering Jesus Christ in the Scriptures.

 

I’d be lying if I said I don’t let a day pass without spending time in the Bible. Sometimes the tyranny of the urgent gets in the way of the important. But I can tell a difference when I haven’t spent time in God’s Word. And it probably shows.

 

Any relationship grows stronger with the more time and energy you put into it, including with the Lord. I used to think spending an hour or so in church on Sunday was sufficient, but that’s no more true than eating one meal a week is enough. Just as we need physical food daily, we also need spiritual food – time with God in the Scriptures, in prayer and meditation.

 

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). And the psalmist tells us, “Blessed is the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2). We’re promised that by spending time with God, we will be blessed.

 

Whether we’re going to work, to school, or trying to manage a household, we all want to be successful. Spending time in the Scriptures with our best Friend of all is a big step in that direction. In Joshua 1:8 we’re assured, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Seems like good advice to me.

 

We’re blessed if we have even a handful of good friends, folks we can trust and rely on when needed. The friends we find on Facebook and other social media might be fun to interact with. However, what better friend can we find than the Lord?

 

Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). And that’s exactly what He did for us, willingly giving up His life on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, to redeem us, and to provide the way for an eternal relationship with God.

So, as we’re spending time communicating with friends we encounter each day, as well as those pseudo-friends we’ve met on Facebook and other social media, it would be wise to make a point of communing with the greatest Friend of all – and His Book.