I had to laugh one day when I was told Facebook relationships were not real friends. I have had deeper and kinder experiences with believers on Facebook than I ever had in person, face to face.
Here is the reason we can develop deeper relationships with those on Facebook than with our families and church attendees: we are able to find those who are like-minded, following the same path we desire to walk, loving the same things we love, and seeking the same things we love.
In families, we have only what was given to us without our choice. We have to struggle to be ourselves in front of people who want us to be just like them. Of course God placed us in families but when we become His child He gives us a new family.
There is a saying, you will know a person by the company they keep. If we think we must remain with family just because they were endowed with the same blood that runs through our bodies, then we miss out on many life experiences that bring wonderful wisdom and human connections for a lifetime and even eternity.
Family tends to want us to think like they do, say what they say, and show approval of many things, even if we do not approve. God was clear that family would be a burden to the born-again believer who has a very different mindset than those who were their childhood companions every day.
Luke 2116 "…15 For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. 17And you will be hated by everyone because of My name."
The one family member who thought differently from the rest was often rejected, almost an outcast for their dissimilarity. Most people do not like challenges or corrections; they want everyone to be just like them.
There is a sense of failure in those who meet up with someone who is different. For those who are pleased with themselves, they feel a personal attack when someone comes along who is different, even if they merely live their own life differently without talking about it.
I will never forget the story a friend told me about family reaction to a decision she and her husband made that they never spoke of to other family members.
This family decided not to have a television in their home anymore because it was becoming a distraction. They removed their television without telling anyone. One day a family member who came to visit was insulted by the absence of the television, accusing the family of acting superior to the other family members. This family member actually accused them of pride and thinking they were better.
Most of us do not encounter such blatant rudeness over our own personal choices, but some people treat us differently in subtle ways for not endorsing whatever they are doing while taking a different route.
One family I knew chastised a young woman, their daughter and sister, for wanting to go to college. The rest of the family was on welfare, living with shack-up girlfriends while pressuring this young woman to do the same things they did. Even though the young woman wanted something better for her life, her family pressured and disrespected her until she finally gave up and became like them.
I encouraged the young woman to trust in Christ. She didn't at that time, but she was interested in having a different life than her family, however weak and depressed, finally giving in to her family to be accepted by them. That was many years ago, we moved away from the area, and I never found out how it all turned out for her as she became an adult with her own choices.
This is why God told us, as born-again believers, to remove ourselves, becoming separate from our bio-family and the world that tries to hinder us, to embrace our new family, which is the family of Christ.
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