A Moving Tribute

I'm in a somewhat giggly mood this afternoon.  You guys ever hear that old song by Micheal W. Smith about Friends?  You know:

     Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them,

      And a friend will not say never, 'cause the welcome never ends.

     (Gag)

Oh, I know the sentiment is really sweet and it's absolutely true that friends in Christ are more than friends, they are brothers and sisters, and because we're going to spend eternity together, we're really not ever saying goodbye when this one moves across the country, or that one takes a new job, or goes to work at a different church, or even dies, but I'm laughing today (I told you I was giggly this afternoon), as I approach 1000 followers on twitter (999 right now) about the really deep level of connection I have with every single one of them. In fact, they are my closest friends.  True friends.  Not.

I'm am actually an experiment in social media that has gone horribly wrong.  See, when I got on twitter almost 16 months ago, there were hardly a quarter million people in the WORLD doing it, and when someone followed you, and you followed them back, it actually meant something. I LIKED that.  My first 100 or so followers on twitter actually ARE real friends.  And there are probably another 200 or so that are either friends of friends, or they are people with which I share a common interest.  Who are these other people?  I'm afraid they are mostly people that are far more interested in me knowing them, than in knowing me.  I don't blame them.  That's just the way it is.

Whether you have 100, 1000, 100,000 or more than a million followers (though some of you may have fans, accounting for those very large numbers of followers, and though some of you "collect" followers just to have large numbers, who could blame you)  I think the TRUTH is, we all probably have about the same number of friends - you know, ACTUAL friends, even true friends or close friends.  So here's what I'm going to do as a tribute to those who are actually my friends:

As soon as my number of followers on twitter has stabilized at 1000 (probably in the next couple of days), I am going to un-follow anyone who isn't an attender at Crossroads or a close friend, or even a friend of a friend, or someone with whom I share a common interest.  I think it will take about 36 hours for five to six hundred people bail on our "friendship".  Social media...kiss my butt.

  

Hey, being Italian, my favorite expression about friends is this: 

     A friend will help you move, 

    A real friend will help you move the body.  

I thank God for all my real friends at Crossroads.  I'll know exactly who to call if there's a body to move.