We Never Talk Anymore
Posted by Dave Hearn in BLOG, Discipleship, Evangelism, Family, Featured, How To Be a Man, Small Groups, Technology | Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Whatever happened to us?
We used to talk all the time…
… and smile and say “hello” when we passed each other…
… and wave at each other when we saw each other on the street.
Has anyone else noticed how people aren’t sociable anymore? I noticed this trend while jogging recently. Everyone has headphones in, walkers and joggers. I’m guilty too, but I still try to expel a winded “hey” or “mornin’ ” when I run by people. Sometimes they don’t even acknowledge my presence. Don’t get me started on the neighbors, I try to wave and say hi and they hide behind a bush! [Wait a second... maybe that's just me.]
What brought this home though, was at the grocery store. At a local supermarket you can get a made-to-order sandwich. You don’t have to utter a word to get it. You go to a kiosk, no more than 5 feet from the deli counter, punch in your meats, bread, cheese and condiment selection on a handy-dandy touch screen and wait for your number to be called. Voila! You have a custom sandwich, you didn’t talk to the person behind the counter, and you can drive your air conditioned vehicle back home so you can quickly get back to Facebook, or video games, or whatever.
Talking? How antiquated. Relationships? How passé.
Third Option Men are about Relationships
In a world that is becoming less “human” connected as it becomes more “web” connected, we have to continue to fight for relationships. Real, face-to-face relationships. Raw, honest, real. Spit, vomit, and blood. We have to re-capture the relationship.
Third Option Men are about Discipleship
A natural outgrowth of healthy relationship is discipleship. With discipleship, we grow, mentor, encourage, and teach each other. We must be honest, as a discipler or disciple. There must be trust and honesty in a relationship, so we can grow closer together as we grow closer to the men God intended us to be.
Third Option Men are about Evangelism
As we get more intimate, through trusting relationships with people getting to know us, we should be exuding Christ-likeness. Our lives, how we relate to others, should be a form of evangelism… our actions, our attitude, our service and love toward others should be the greatest evangelism tools we use.
Third Option Men are about Family
This is where our relationships begin and end. Our families must be the priority in our life. More important than discipling our small group, more critical than evangelizing the masses, our family must be our core small group and our focus for evangelism. Once our family is covered, trained, initiated, loved and taught to love God, then we can move out.
Once we’ve decided to invest in REAL, honest-to-goodness relationships, I know it will pay huge dividends in our lives. Start with your family. Nurture and teach. Then begin to gather others to disciple, evangelize, and live life with. Start small. Think big. In a world that is increasingly withdrawing, we must press forward.
