connecting to...

i am really enjoying this new experience of connecting with other people on the internet. my daughter, stef turned me on this past week to facebook and i have been on a whirlwind trip of connecting with people all over the internet. i have connected with people from my college days forty years ago, with family all over the country, with friends all over the country, with friends of friends, with people i don't know, i have been on a connecting frenzy.

i have been doing the same thing with people here on long island, my new home. i have been going to different starbucks and connecting with people, i have been talking with people at church, at a meeting last night i was able to connect with some new people. i really have been enjoying my time of finding new friends.

i started looking last week here on the front porch at this matter of losing your passion in life and another relational passion killer is living an isolated lifestyle, of living totally to one's self.

listen, we were all made to live in relationships with other people. we were made to need others. that’s why one of the most cruel imprisonments is solitary confinement. you put somebody all by themselves, they think of it as a torture. why? because we were made to live with other people.

we’ve all seen what happens to a spouse when the other spouse dies and they all of a sudden begin to feel like, why should I even go on? what is there worth living for?

there’s plenty worth living for. GOD still has a reason for your life. but you begin to feel because that person isn’t there that life isn’t worth living. the passion has gone from life.

sometimes you lose passion because you’re not getting any connecting time with other positive people. you might be doing a lot. you might be at a lot of entertainment events. but you’re not getting any relationship time that increases and restores passion.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (niv) says, two are better than one. because if one falls down his friend can help him up. but pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up.

i love the bible! it’s such a simple, practical book. if you fall down it’s really good to have somebody there to help you up. some of you there’s nobody around to help you up. so when you fall down you have to struggle up all by yourself all the time.

the bible is saying get somebody around you who can help you. it helps you to keep the strength and passion that you and I need for everyday life.

i’ve been a pastor for a lot of years now. i’ve seen a lot of people who wanted to have a passion for GOD. i could see it in their eyes. yet they couldn’t sustain it. i can tell you without a shadow of a doubt where that passion began to fall off.

the first step is always the same first step. they stopped being around GOD’s people. they stopped coming to church. they stopped hanging around other people who had the same passion. it’s like, "it’s after CHRISTmas. winter’s coming. i won’t come as often. it’s just so cold"

it’s like that old picture of if you take a coal out of a fire and put it off to itself it gets cold. you put it back in the fire, it warms up again. GOD made us all like that. we need other people in our lives in order to sustain the passion in our lives.

listen, i know that people hurt us and i know how hard it is to get back and make the effort to strive to connect but it is an effort that makes a difference. as ruben welch said, we really do need each other.

so who are you going to reach out to today, who are you going to connect with? i know that it will be worth it.

just some thoughts up here on bill's front porch....