Facebook: Dis-like.

Let me just start off by saying that I, of all people, am a HUGE fan of facebook.  I absolutely love the feeling of getting a snapshot into people's lives. The best is seeing their pictures (many of them completely embarrassing), watching them check into random places (many of them completely embarrassing), and seeing who's complicated with who this week (ha!.)  It's great!  And I completely fall into the category of the person who often shares too many random bits of my personal life for all the world to see.  Guilty!

However, there is a whole other group of people (in my case, a small percentage of my fb friends), that put their hearts, their minds, and most uncomfortably, their pains, hurts, and fears out there for everyone to see.  The past few days have been difficult with me seeing a few different friends posting some rather uncomfortable stuff about their hearts and how they've been totally broken- for various reasons.  And after I read their status updates, and their notes, and their wall posts on other friends' walls, I have this aching feeling for them.  My heart hurts for them.  It's not fun.  And I don't like it- no pun intended.

And I caught myself wondering, "Why would anyone admit to having these feelings to all 200+ friends?" 

Of course, there are hundreds of different reasons why one would expose their lives in such a way. For some, it's attention, for others it's a therapeutic outlet to write, and I would be that some people don't even have a reason for doing it, they just do. 

So as I was contemplating hiding the aforementioned friends, so that I just don't have to share in their sadness, I realized that this is my opportunity. 

This is my opportunity.

To pray for them. 
To advocate for them.
To petition for them.
To love them.

And even though sometimes I don't even tell them that I'm doing this (many of them are not believers), I still feel that it is my responsibility as a follower of Christ, to love them and pray for them.  Now, it's often hard when I do pray for them and share with them that I'm doing so, and then they either ignore me or tell me to not waste my time, or delete me- that one hurt a little.  That's difficult, sure.  But whether it hurts my feelings momentarily or not, is besides the point.  The point is that they still need prayers and they still need love.

To make a long story short, I hope that by these people sharing their hearts in such a way, that others are able to lift them up in prayer and offer them a friend during their rough season.  I hope that I'm helping where I can doing a good job in being a prayer warrior for these people.

Facebook friends may come and go, but God will always be there.  Now that's deep ;)