Good Eats and Thoughts of a Contemplative Feeler

A couple weekends ago, I had the opportunity to share at an event for the fifth and sixth grade students at my church.  The theme was how we as individual superheroes can contribute to our own superhero team -- the body of Christ.  One of the points I shared was that it is important and necessary for the body of Christ to be made up of superheroes with different talents and gifts because...let's face it...it would be boring and nothing to very few tasks would get accomplished if everyone had the same personality, gifts, and talents.  What naturally happens though when we begin working and become friends with people who are different from us?  We tend to butt heads...and friendships tend to get messy.   Since I shared at this event, even though I talked about it to the students at the time, I have been truly realizing how messy friendships and relationships can get when your friends and coworkers have completely different personalities than you. There will be times when we say t

I realize that the title itself is a little melodramatic since Facebook is not literally destroying my friendships, but it has been affecting them in the realm of my mind. Assuming you are Facebook friends with the people who are your friends in real life, Facebook has conditioned our minds that your real friends will like whatever post--from pictures to status updates to random articles you decide to share because you believe they are interesting.  Facebook has also conditioned us that the value of what we have to say and the value of our identities all lies within the number of "likes" we receive on posts or the number of comments we can generate.  Whenever I decide to post something, I always end up checking to see if anyone has liked my post. Currently in my Discipleship & Ethics class in seminary, we are discussing how technology and media can become powers in our lives that take away from our identities and create a community that is contrary to the kingdom comm