“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (I Corinthians 13:4-8 NIV)
Most of us these days are connected with Facebook. It is a great way to keep up with friends, reconnect with old ones, and let others know what is happening in our lives. But here’s the big problem with Facebook: It gives us great expectations of what life is to be like. Apart from the negative and often sarcastic posts during election season or in the midst of a national discussion of some political issue, Facebook posts are by and large positive. They paint a picture of people’s lives, their marriages, as wonderful. Everyone is always having fun, having a great vacation, or a great night out. There are no relationship or marital issues. Everyone has a wonderful spouse or significant other who is always doing wonderful things. Churches are wonderful, loving, and there are no divisions or struggles. From the perspective of Facebook, life is always great. I call it the Facebook World and a lot of our perspectives on life are influenced by it.
One cannot fault the medium of Facebook for this. Who in their right mind is going to reveal all the negatives of their relationships and of their lives with the world at large? Of course, we are only going to post about the positive, unless it involves something like a serious illness or job loss and we are asking for prayer. We are not going to share about the arguments, the disappointments we have in the people we love, or the struggles we are wrestling with. If we do, it will be in private.
But I think it is easy to forget this when we are on Facebook. Life and relationships always seem to be great, and so thus our expectations for what we should experience. Yet, as the Apostle Paul points out in this well-known passage about love, daily life is full of challenges. It requires patience and an even temperament because life doesn’t always go the way we want it and people don’t always act the way we think they should. It requires forgiveness because people are going to disappoint us and, sometimes, hurt us deeply. It requires an attitude of acceptance of our lives as they are because others are always going to possess some things we do not have. And it requires perseverance because life in a fallen world can often be very difficult. That’s just the way it is.
Today, if you are living in the Facebook World, know that it is a skewed world where everyone is happy, lives are great, and little ever goes wrong. The real world in which you live is a little messier. But that’s okay, because God’s love never fails and can get you through no matter what life brings.
© Jim Musser 2013
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