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“Dyson and Tolkien were the immediate causes of my conversion. Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?”
– C.S. Lewis
there’s an ebb and flow to the social settings we find ourselves in over the course of our lifetime.
when we are children, the family unit is our social setting. everything revolves around the lives our parents have created for us to grow up in. healthy families provide the major of interaction and all of the protection we need. our parents pick and choose our friends and limit our social networking to those they deem safe and manageable.
as we get older, our boundaries widen (much to the fear and disappointment of most parents) and we begin to have more and more control over our own circles. teenagers spread their wings and transfer greater importance to the opinions of friends and less to the wisdom of parents.
the social group becomes everything. it could be a small, tight circle of friends…or a larger group of kids with shared interest or ownership, but either way, freinds win during adolescence. for all but the most isolated introvert, friends matter…groups matter…crowds matter.
that’s why the church youth group matters for many kids. going places. doing things. spending time together. working towards common goals. joining with others to make a difference.
and then it seems as we grow older, we begin to move back toward a smaller and more easily controlled group that dictates the flow of our lives. as adults, we grow more fond of finely manicured lawns, comfy recliners, and peaceful nights home alone…and farther away from the buzz of groups and interaction with people.
who knows? maybe it’s because we grow more mature and are not as easily influenced by what the crowd is doing. maybe we’re not as impressed by fun and laughter and games and the joy of sharing life together as we were when we were young. maybe life has just taken it’s toll…school, children, jobs, money, health…whatever. maybe we’ve practiced saying “no” so much, it becomes our default answer when someone asks us to get involved.
schedules are crunched. energy is sapped. focus is blurred. for so many, there just seems to be less and less desire to reach deeply into the well of relationships.
maybe we’re just getting tired.
what do you think?
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