Our Stories
The Antidote For Modern Misery
By Abigail Welborn | posted 07/16/2009
"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love." (Romans 12:10, NIV)
My friend posted an article (warning: the language in the linked article is intentionally profane, so read at your own risk) on Facebook the other day about why people in modern, developed nations are so miserable, despite all the advances in technology designed to keep us safer, healthier, and more comfortable. While tongue-in-cheek, the article had a good point: closeting ourselves away from real human interaction is having a severely detrimental effect on our happiness.
Not that we need to be reminded, but these are the signs of our times: Earbuds popped in the instant class is over until the instant the next class starts. No human interaction while walking or riding the bus, please. A beautiful day at the park finds people outside, yes, but texting or checking their e-mail on their phones. Heck, text is now a verb - let that weird you out for a moment. We do our shopping online, our gathering online, our chatting online. An outsider might think we're all trying to avoid one another.
Of course, no one's that bad, right? No one actually uses e-mail to avoid having a conversation on the phone or - gasp! - in person, right? I certainly have never ever once done that. Ever.
Turns out humans just weren't built for solitary confinement. Even though interacting online is better than not interacting at all, nothing tops the real deal. Not surprisingly, this is not news to God. (Hey, he made us this way.) There are literally dozens of "one another" instructions in the New Testament alone. Love, accept, agree with, live in harmony with, fellowship with, encourage, teach, admonish, greet, serve, love, love, love... one another. While each of these commands is worthy of an article on its own, the point is that they're all assuming we actually spend time with other people.
I've written articles before on how to get along with other people, since the church, like your family, is full of people you didn't get to choose, whom you're now supposed to love. While it's true that having Christ in us gives us a well of power and love to draw from in dealing with people who annoy us, I hadn't considered that no matter how you do it, the very act of putting up with people is in fact what makes us better able to appreciate them. The more we're around all different kinds of people, the more we're able to value them, because we grow used to looking past their exterior.
So, welcome to the Church! We want you here, no matter who you are. We want you to be a part of our lives, and we want to be part of yours. I didn't think there was any problem we could guarantee we'd solve, but I might have just stumbled on the one we can: you're not alone anymore... whether you like it or not. So be devoted to one another, even when you don't feel like it; turns out it's good for you.
Abigail can be reached via email here. She is amused that as a further sign of the times, the first sign of the times in this article was originally "Headphones popped in," which one of her readers correctly flagged as incongruous, though it took her a minute to remember that there were headphones that went on the outside of your ears.
