Real Crazy or Crazy Real

I used to think people were crazy.

You know, the people. Who hooked up on the internet.

I had no understanding of how true meaningful relationships could come through a keyboard and a screen. How lives could mesh together through motherboards and circuits. How lives could be changed for the better by a few cables and wires.

But now I get it.

100%. Get it.

Now, don't get me wrong. I totally understand that their are weirdos and creeps out there who take full advantage of innocence and prey on victims who are unsuspecting and naive. I get that. I think that it is heinous and disgusting and fully believe in internet safety and cautiousness and vigilance. But that's not what I'm talking about. No weirdo speak here.

I'm talking about bonds. And friendships. And connections.

And they happen. Every.Single.Day.

Blogging and "social-networking" (I hate that word because it seems so sterile.) used to confuse me. I viewed it as a bunch of housewives who had WAY too much time on their hands, so they used their minutes between donning rubber gloves and scrubbing toilets to voyeuristically peer into other people's personal lives. It seemed like another take on those celebrity gossip magazines....only minus the celebrities. And then to find out that not only did you LOOK into their lives, but you COMMENTED on their lives....well, it just all seemed absurd.

And then I did it. Because I'm a follower and someone told me to. *wink*

And my life is changed.

Forever.

Because now I have a circle of friends that stretches from coast to coast. Friends that pray for me and my family. That know my children by name and can remember details about their small lives. Friends that snort giggle with me and weep with me. We've been through births, and deaths, and job losses, and surgeries. We've been on vacations together, and we've sat in each other's living rooms watching our favorite tv shows together. We discuss dinner plans, the latest coupon finds, and the joy of the flip flops we found on clearance. We do what friends do. We just happen to live states away from each other.

And now I get it.

I completely get it.

Because I know how significant those one-on-one conversations are when you reveal deep dark secrets. Because I understand the power of prayer warriors when your family is the midst of crisis, even if those prayer warriors are hundreds of miles away. Because I know what it is like to want to meet one of your sisters face-to-face because it is just time to wrap your arms around them.

Because it's real.

And I don't think it is fathomable until you experience it. I don't think it makes sense until you walk miles with the women that you are now bonded to for life. I don't think it registers as even possible until you accept that God's plan for relationship isn't bound by skin...that it can exist through wires and cables.

It does sound crazy.

But it's not.

Because it's real.

So very real.

Just like the change for the better that is me. Because of this. Because of these women.


To all of my dear precious friends.........Thank you so much for the gifts of grace, mercy, patience, kindness, and love that you extend to me every day. I truly do see Jesus in you.