The More the Merrier, Right?

It just started pouring and my first thought was, "How on earth is my rolling backpack going to survive the walk to school?"

My wife is amazing. She's beautiful. She's smart. And I learn from her every day.

Unfortunately, for the saps out there, this post isn't really about her. But I love bragging on her!

The other day she taught me a fact I didn't know. Apparently, on this new-fangled Facebook thing that I keep hearing about, people have, on average, 130 friends. 

In retrospect, I'm not sure what surprised me more. The actual number, or my ridiculous reaction:

"Is that all? Are you sure?"

First of all, my wife is always right. This is a scientifically proven fact. So I don't know why I ever ask, "Are you sure?" But even more surprising to me was my initial reaction. Is having 130 people to network with really not that many?

Goodness gracious we live in some weird times.

What sort of person needs more than 130 people to network with? In fact, when you divide yourself 130 ways, how much of you is really ever given to each of those people? How deep could those relationships truly be?

And then I think about my friends and me. I know very few people my age who have less than 500 "friends" on Facebook. Now, naturally, we know that this includes a few strays, so even if there's 50 people that we somehow managed to "approve" of, that still leaves 450 people to network with.

Who needs 450 friends?!

Not this guy.

Sadly, I'm not sure what to think of this. I finally "de-friended" a few people for the first time the other day. But then a few days later, I added a couple more to my list. And all along, I wonder how deep my friendships truly are. I wonder how committed I truly am to these people. I wonder, is it really possible for me to truly love these people? 

I'm not sure. The example I have set for me through Jesus' life is pretty clear. He had 12ish guys that he kept pretty tight with (which still sounds like a lot to me). And then there were about another 100 people that followed him around. And he had compassion for those people. He loved those people deeply. And he was God in the flesh. 

How on earth can I expect to one-up Jesus? Do I really think that I'm more masterful with relationships than he was? Do I truly believe that I'm capable of establishing meaningful, caring, and compassionate relationships with over 500 people?

Doubt it.

Moral of the story? We need to focus a little more in our relationships. We don't necessarily need to skip straight over to Facebook and purge our "friends" list, but we need to take inventory:

Who am I investing my time in?

Who am I showing love to on a regular basis?
 
Who am I allowing to love me? 

And in all of this, we need to remember: we can have 500 friendships that are an inch deep, but how much of an investment is an inch, really? Do I really care about someone if I'm only willing to give them an inch of who I am? Or do they deserve better? 

Question: What can you do today to deepen one (yes, just one) relationship in your life?