2320 friends...

I have 2320 "friends" on Facebook.

That is not a stat that is to sound popular, to sound insignificant or for you to compare yourself to me and think, "man, I am so much cooler than JR..." or to think just the opposite, "man, I am nowhere near as cool as JR..." I am fully aware that there are folks out there who have thousands of Facebook friends.

I know that some of them are genuine friends. I know some of them are family. I know some of them are friends from back-in-the-day that you just got reacquainted with. I know that some of them were added simply because they were wearing a bikini in their profile pic. I know that some of them are there because you are "supposed" to be friends with them. I know some of them are there because they requested to be your friend and you can't say no to folks. And I know that this list could go on and on.

The reason I point this out is because having friends and having friends are two totally different things.

I feel like my wife and I are pretty swell individuals. We have lots of friends, we have lots of close relationships with people, we are not too shabby to hangout with, we can crack a funny joke every now and then (my wife is hilarious actually), I am good to go play ball with or frisbee golf, we love having heart-to-hearts with people, and we have almost 4000 friends combined on Facebook.

But all that being said, do you know how many invites we got this weekend for 4th of July festivities? How many invites we got to go to the lake or to come over for a BBQ?

One...

One invite.

Now, let me assure you that this is not a "feel sorry for me" post. If you are hearing that then please stop. We have no problem with our lack of popularity this weekend. We had a great weekend together and she's my best friend in the world so getting to hang out with just her is no consolation prize by any stretch of the imagination. I could kick it with my boo 24/7 and love my life.

But, it did get us thinking...

If we have almost 4000 Facebook friends, if we have tons of people we feel close to, if we have plenty of friends we hangout with, if we are not "unpopular", and yet we only got ONE invite for the weekend to do anything at all, then how many people out there spent this holiday, as well as many many others, with ZERO invites from anybody, to do anything?

And how many of those didn't have their best friend of a wife to kick it with?

How many of those spent it completely alone?

And you might be asking yourself, "What's this got to do with me JR?" And to be honest, I have been asking myself that same question.

What does this have to do with me?

Is it my responsibility to befriend folks who don't have friends? Is it my duty to love on folks who don't really have many folks who love on them? Is this my problem to fix? Am I supposed to actively be a part of the solution? Am I supposed to be inviting those out there on the ZERO invite list to a BBQ at my house? What is my obligation to this?

In the Gospels, Jesus seems to touch on this very idea saying things like, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?" and then again with, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"  


There seems to be this call to reach out to those who are on the ZERO invite list. There seems to be a call to love those who don't have folks loving on them, who are awkward to love, and just maybe, are simply hard as crap to love.


By no means do I have this figured out and by no means am I anywhere close to having this thing perfected, but it is something that I am wrestling with these days. 


How many of us ever reach out to those who have nobody? How many of us befriend those on the ZERO invite list? How many of us talk to "those folks" any place aside from church? And sadly enough, how many of us don't even talk to "those people" at church?


Quit only loving those who love you.


Quit only doing good to those who do good to you.


Quit only greeting your people.


How frikkin' great would it be to get as many people off the ZERO invite list as possible??


I guess that's why it's called The Greatest Commandment, huh?