It's hard to re-imagine the world before text messaging was possible - before our reading, working, conversing and resting were punctuated by the ubiquitous beep-beep beep-beep of our toddler-like mobiles, screaming for attention regardless of context. It's hard to re-imagine the world before Facebook was where we kept in touch with our friends, and reconnected with old friends, where we endure and enjoy our ever present past, and our ever widening future. Communication, it seems, is at a premium, and we're all chatting, talking, and expressing in ways which were unheard of just fifteen years ago.
And yet, with all of the blessings that modern communications tools bring, they are still incredibly limited. Try, for instance, to send a text to someone about a delicate issue, or to broach something that you feel a little reticent about. It is almost impossible. No amount of 'lol' and :-) can really soften or intone a question, a joke, or an assertive statement. And it's even worse the other way round - how many of us have received a private message, an email, or an SMS, and read it through a few times to make sure we've understood what the other person has said?
Even in the world of Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Skype, the face-to-face conversation still wins hands-down for me. There's something simple, historic and unadorned about sitting across a table with someone and enjoying their company, their conversation, their tones and facial expressions, and enjoying true conversation as it was always meant to be.
Something of this frustration appears to surface in the Apostle John's dealings with the Church whom he loved, and to whom he writes in his second epistle. The author writes of the joyful experience of seeing believers walking and growing in their faith, and the dark prospect of false teachers ministering in the spirit of Antichrist. Those are big topics for a small letter, but with fluency and brevity the biblical author manages to handle them skilfully and pastorally - all, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And then comes his enigmatic statement in v12 'I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete'. So, for John, even with the blessing of writing, and ministering an inspired letter to God's elect people, there was still an untold benefit and blessing to person to person fellowship and communion. John was relational and personal and desired his ministry to be worked out in that way, as well as by the written Word.
All of this is helpful to us today, in our tweeting, pinging, feeding world. The simple joy of face to face fellowship carries worth and ministry which go far beyond a 140 character limit, or the confines of our ability to smiley face our way through the choppy waters of life, friendship and ministry. This is why, in the final analysis, text message pastoral visitation, online MP3 sermon sampling, and Facebook spirituality just can't cut it when compared with getting together, talking it through and working it out via simple human interaction. Perhaps we should print the words 'not with paper and ink' across the top of our favourite communications device and remember the iron-sharpening-iron benefit of meeting and blessing one another.
And yet, with all of the blessings that modern communications tools bring, they are still incredibly limited. Try, for instance, to send a text to someone about a delicate issue, or to broach something that you feel a little reticent about. It is almost impossible. No amount of 'lol' and :-) can really soften or intone a question, a joke, or an assertive statement. And it's even worse the other way round - how many of us have received a private message, an email, or an SMS, and read it through a few times to make sure we've understood what the other person has said?
Even in the world of Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Skype, the face-to-face conversation still wins hands-down for me. There's something simple, historic and unadorned about sitting across a table with someone and enjoying their company, their conversation, their tones and facial expressions, and enjoying true conversation as it was always meant to be.
Something of this frustration appears to surface in the Apostle John's dealings with the Church whom he loved, and to whom he writes in his second epistle. The author writes of the joyful experience of seeing believers walking and growing in their faith, and the dark prospect of false teachers ministering in the spirit of Antichrist. Those are big topics for a small letter, but with fluency and brevity the biblical author manages to handle them skilfully and pastorally - all, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And then comes his enigmatic statement in v12 'I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete'. So, for John, even with the blessing of writing, and ministering an inspired letter to God's elect people, there was still an untold benefit and blessing to person to person fellowship and communion. John was relational and personal and desired his ministry to be worked out in that way, as well as by the written Word.
All of this is helpful to us today, in our tweeting, pinging, feeding world. The simple joy of face to face fellowship carries worth and ministry which go far beyond a 140 character limit, or the confines of our ability to smiley face our way through the choppy waters of life, friendship and ministry. This is why, in the final analysis, text message pastoral visitation, online MP3 sermon sampling, and Facebook spirituality just can't cut it when compared with getting together, talking it through and working it out via simple human interaction. Perhaps we should print the words 'not with paper and ink' across the top of our favourite communications device and remember the iron-sharpening-iron benefit of meeting and blessing one another.
