Is Facebook a "Friend?"

I didn't post yesterday, and I'm committed to writing 500 words a day.  I don't know how to get a good count on how many words a post is.  But, I sense the Lord saying that it doesn't really matter.  I have a rough idea of how many lines of type here make up 500 words.  Part of the reason that I want to write every day is to kind of "find my voice," as they say.  I'm not exactly sure what that means, except perhaps it would make me more comfortable in my own skin, when I try to sit down and write.  As it is now, I'm always second-guessing how things should be said.  Today, want to write about "friendship."  I think that a lot of people do what I do and use things like facebook and Sunday School as a way to get sort of a feeling of being close to people, and yet a way to actually keep people at a distance.  I've done this to others, and had them do it to me.  It's really frustrating.  One thing, though, is that I can see that I'm not the only one of my "friends" who is afraid of intimacy.  I'm going to suggest to my pastor that he preach on friendship. I think that we can only be as close to the Lord as we are willing to be with people.  Didn't Jesus say something like, "How can you love me, when you will not love your brother?"  I have noticed that I am not the only Christian who uses the context of good discipleship as a way to keep the Lord at a comfortable place in our lives.  When He wants to grow closer to us, we relegate our relationship with Him to our "Quiet Time."  And we search for formulas to insure us that this quiet time with Jesus comes up to the standard for such a thing.

When it comes to friendship with people, Facebook is a study in the fear of intimacy.  We come into it with high expectations, seeing people with hundreds of people that they call friends.  But, we learn fairly quickly not to expect too much from these hundreds of "friends."  We learn that it is easier to ignore our "Facebook Friends" who seem to be getting too close or asking for too much friendship. And we think that this keeping people in their place is good.  And it is, if we never want to get any closer to people than the rigid structure of Facebook allows.