Click it or ticket? (Part 1) (It had to be edited…)

So pre-blogging, I was told about a site (flowerdust.net, amazing, check it out…) where not only were great blogs abounding, but many a link was created that lead to the donation of something like over $80,000 in food supplies for charities in Africa. Awesome right?

So I start blogging, and I take her lead.

WordPress allows you to check your stats and see how many people look at your blog each day and what links on your site they follow etc… So yesterday, I link to thehungersite.net. I set up an icon, you click, corporate sponsors donate a cup of food to charities. Simple. Free. Easy. Right?

I checked my stats, 104 people looked at the blog. 5 people clicked on the icon. 5. And one of them was me.

WTF.

So, you wanna know why the scriptures say that we shouldn’t leave fellowship, as some are in the habit of doing? Because 104 people can look at an icon but 100 will ignore it.

Because it disconnects us. It leaves us so numb behind our computer screens that we can look at things and can’t even click our cursors to help someone because we don’t know them. Maybe we’ve been burned scams asking for clicking to get personal info. I get that, I do. So I did my homework and protected you.

I know that scam artists are out there. But relationship scam artists aren’t worth a life of disconnection.  And I’m not only talking about in the church, see tomorrow’s part 2 (it’s been edited and made mucho more better).
This is why the local church is SO important. In the local church I’ve seen the following:

• A woman named Sarah, who takes her young daughter to Ethiopia to teach her about the nations and pray for the sick and the poor, to donate to those in need because the future rests on the shoulders of the next generation and the seeds we plant in them
• A 65 year-old nurse named Arlene, who leads a monthly group of people into a soup kitchen in down-town Denver to feed the homeless and spend time with people who are in respite care because they are too sick to be sent back to the streets, but not sick enough to be kept in the hospital
• A father of four (and countless other spiritual children) and phenomenal husband named George, one of the best men I’ve ever known, who lead a healing ministry and took a group of people regularly to the marine base at Camp Pendleton in California, simply because he felt that someone needed to love the men and women who were away from home
• A grandmother, who we call Mama Lois, who takes a group of crazy little kids to a nursing home to cheer up the lonely elderly on a weekly basis
• A young mother of two who constantly coordinates meals for the sick in my church, including me, when anyone is down or out (and until last week, she did it in a family with a working husband and only one car)

Without connection, we lose sight of need. We lose the human touch. We don’t even click. We read but it means nothing. It’s curiosity, gossip even. Sort of like when I get really anti-social and start considering myself best friends with Meridith from Grey’s Anatomy. She’s not real. And neither is our friendship. And as such, it’s fun to watch her life and feel totally justified in talking about it…

That’s why we can’t want relationship with God but leave His church. Fellowship is real relationship. It sharpens us, it enhances us. It takes our eyes off of ourselves and allows us to see the world around us. It gives opportunity for the spirit of God to flow out of us and pour life into others (which, I’d argue, is the reason we have that spirit in the first place… more on that in another post).  The point is, we NEED interaction. Scripturally, physically, emotionally. For joy, healing, love, growth, nourishment, fulfillment.

Remind me of this the next time I’m hurt and crawl back to my turtle shell.

I’m certainly not innocent. I can look away from tragedy and disconnect because the tragedy isn’t mine.

But that doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit isn’t telling me that SOME tragedy isn’t. I should be asking God daily where I should be serving. What is my tragedy? What should I have faith for? Who should I be feeding? Because I certainly can’t ignore it anymore….

So what is your tragedy?