The Internet and the Introvert - The Essential Need for Connection

 

"Above all, love one another deeply,

because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8

I have a clear memory of when the land line was installed here at our cottage.  And I was not happy,

We didn't own the cottage back then, but had generous use of it by the relative who did, and who also felt it was time to get connected with the outside world.  This was waaaaay before anything like the internet existed.  It's important to know that.

I was not happy because the month we spent here every July was sacred.  It was a respite, a time set apart for family only.  The isolation of an island meant no one could drop in on you unannounced.  We were secluded, and it was quiet.

All this was especially important because life and ministry, even back then, had a people intensity to it that made the time away necessary for our family's well-being and my own mental health.   I mean, if Jesus found it necessary to retreat into solitude from time to time (eg. Mark 1:35-39), how much more the introverted-yet-fully-engaged-mercy-oriented pastor?

The phone line seemed an intrusion; a way of people being able to reach me when, frankly, I did not want to be reached.  We kept the new technological advancement on the down low.  Only gave our the number to those on the need-to-know list.

That was then.  

I laugh at myself now when, due to a change with our previous server last fall, we had to switch internet providers for our connection here this spring.  That meant that for the four days we were here to open we had no connection.  And we felt it.  I felt it.  Not hugely, because it was, after all just four days.  But enough that we even delayed our arrival by a week while we waited for the proper gizmo box thing to arrive at our door back in the city before deciding it was okay to come up and step into cottage life for the season.

It's working great, by the way.  (But then you probably guessed that since you're reading this post, and I would need internet access to send it out.)  Plus there's the thing about having our phones for calls and texts, independent of internet.  And, oh yeah, we still have that land line.

I count nine different means by which I could be contacted here at the cottage.

And I'm pretty okay with all of that.  

Be completely humble and gentle;

be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Make every effort to keep the unity of

the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:2-3

I still wouldn't want a barrage of messages to deal with all at once, of course.  But a lot is very different today than it was that first day they came to hook up the land line.  Mostly it's that we can be here so much longer than just one month, since, for both Ken and I, our jobs have changed dramatically, and 'work from home' can have various iterations.  Also, most of the nine different means of contact are quite less intrusive than the random, raucous ringing of a phone (the likes of which could require you have to run up from the dock to answer in time -- so annoying!).  

And surely it goes without saying that this is about so much more just the business side of things.  Yes, it's great to be able to send and receive all the emails that keep life going, to do the research and watch the video tutorials on fundraising, to check out a few online commentaries, to access those Google docs. 

But it's just as much, if not more about the fun Facebook posts, sharing sunrises and critters and views from the deck; about quick and happy chats with the grandkids, making plans for when they are here later in the summer; about Zoom conversations and prayer times; and just generally staying connected to the wide and beautiful spectrum of people God has seen fit to place in my life, and me in theirs.  

Instructions to New Testament believers (the distinction of which includes all of us today, at least that's my understanding), frequently and repeatedly include the essential need for strong and deeply loving connection.  Neither Peter nor Paul, when hand-writing their messenger-delivered, months-to-receive letter in the first century, could likely ever have imagined a system where they could have just hit 'send.'  But I think the same principles apply.  

Stay connected.  Let love be the depth of it.  Make every effort for it.   

Yes, let's just say it here, in-person, human contact is best under most normal circumstances. I need just one word to prove my point here: hugs.  

And...how fabulous is it that we have the means to keep conveying the love, and keep strengthening the connections in other ways when we aren't physically present.

That's why I haven't bailed on Facebook as of yet.  Despite the strenuous effort in tailoring my newsfeed so I am not disproportionately bad-news baited, it remains for me a compelling means by which something good and positive and perhaps even holy can be shared out into the wild space that is social media.

Which is what I hope for you this day.

That by these words, or by any other means available to you, you might be encouraged and strengthened and inspired.  That you would feel the connection of belonging, the welcome of being loved deeply.

Thursday blessings all.