After a 2 week hiatus I needed to finish up my Social Networking and the Seasons "blog series". This is the blog I've been looking forward to doing and have been building up to. I'm still excited, but the past 2 weeks have really added some new perspective and direction to my life, so this is the first of 2 blogs I'll be writing today. Though the second blog frankly makes this one a little anticlimactic (at least to me), it interestingly still lines up with where my heart is going and what I'm so excited about!

So what happens when that guy or girl you barely remember from school shows up asking to be your friend, and you barely recognize them, much less consider them a "friend"? Or what about those folks you meet through "the internets" and who become your facebook friend though you aren't REALLY friends? And then there are those people who you JUST met, and they went home and looked you up and sent you a friend request? I've had all three of these and lots of other weird combinations. I even have one friend who asked to be my friend, found out I wasn't who they thought I was, but after a little talking we decided to become friends anyway. I don't know this person any more than I know Bob Maloogaloogaloogaloogalooga! (Props to anyone who recognizes that reference!) I have an answer - and I'm going to share it through 3 stories.

I have someone in my group of "friends" who I accepted as a friend only because I knew I was the teacher of her friends, so I knew she probably really knew me from one of my teaching gigs. I will call her "Sue". I didn't recognize Sue, but she posted on my wall from time to time and acted like she really knew me. One day, after around 2 years of her being my friend, I really felt like I needed to find out who she was. I asked her, and she laughed and did the whole, "I can't believe you don't remember me!" thing. Her last name was NOT her maiden name, so I didn't feel as bad after I found out who she was. As I was looking at her wall trying to find out about her, I noticed she had a note about her personality type and how she didn't think that fit her. Once I figured out who she was, I pointed out that the personality type fit her EXACTLY and then told her things about her life that really shocked her. I don't know why I knew these things about her, I hadn't seen her in years! Anyway, long story short, my wife and I are hoping to talk to her some day soon and start a new relationship with Sue. She's expressed an interest in my church and has a lot of things going on in her life that I'm hoping my wife and I can help her with.

Through Scrabble I've made some really cool friends of people who I wouldn't have known otherwise. I play competitively, so my "real" friends don't like playing me much (most of my words look made up or look like I cheated to find them, but I really know these words!) Anyway, I've made 3 or 4 friends who I've had AMAZING conversations with and who have impacted me, and who I suspect I've impacted (hopefully positively!)

And I have a good friend (we'll call him Fred) who was on the job, working with a client. The client found out Fred had a facebook account, looked him up, and added him while Fred was still there at the job site! He'd JUST met Fred! Fred was a little put off at first, but through weird situations Fred invited the client to join him for dinner (Fred was still near the job site and needed to eat anyway, so he asked the client to come along). The client told Fred about his life and how he didn't have many people in his life who asked him to go out to eat or hang out or even just talk. Fred has become the client's friend and is now making a difference in this person's life, and I would venture to say vice versa.

Ok - nice stories - so what? Here's what I've gotten through all of these stories (and many, many more). When Jesus was on Earth, He impacted everyone who came into his path. Believe in God or not, this is a true statement about the man, Jesus. What was so special about him? He treated people with respect and set about his life to make a difference in His world. Lazarus was an old friend of Jesus. It doesn't even mention Lazarus (that I recall) other than after Lazarus died, and when he did, Jesus wept. This was an old friend who Jesus was close to, but I'm guessing he was a friend from an old "season". Jesus found time for his old friend, though, and transcended seasons to impact his friend and all the people around Him. He also made fast friends with a jerk named Zaccheus who climbed up a tree just to see him. Jesus would have had NO REASON to become his "friend", but Zaccheus was hurting and Jesus noticed and changed Zacchus' life forever. And how about the people who simply overheard Jesus talking and decided to follow Him? If I talk, I wonder how many would follow, but there was something about what Jesus had to say that made people FLOCK to him!

Translate that to facebook - I wonder how many friends Jesus would have on facebook? Can you even BEGIN to guess how many people would follow him on Twitter?!! I'm going to guess thousands and thousands! Some old, some new, some who just want to play Scrabble with the Son of God (I wonder if they'd accuse HIM of cheating?!) And I'm CERTAIN Jesus would pay attention to status updates, messages, anything that would offer Him the opportunity to care for the sick, the hurting, the poor in spirit, the hungry and thirsty, the imprisoned, the naked... anyone who has need.

I look at these "seasonal overlaps" as opportunities. I have to be careful to make sure that I'm not staying too close to my comfort zone (i.e. Lazarus friends) so that it affects my ability to make a difference in people's lives, but if my Lazarus friends need me, I'm there for them!!! Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and any other social media are just more tools that can be used to impact people. What is your impact going to be? I want MINE to be an impact that changes the world one person at a time for the better... no matter what season I'm in!