Take It Personally

Take It Personally

Publication: The Lookout

Date: October 19, 1997

Column: From the Editor's Desk

Category: Communication

The house where my grandparents lived had a big front porch with a wooden swing. The swing had been there a long time. It was covered with several layers of white paint, and nearby were worn spots in the wooden railing where generations of swingers had rested their feet. When I was a boy, I'd ride my bicycle past the house where Grandpa sat on the swing reading his newspaper. He'd look up and wave. Sometimes I'd stop in for a cold bottle of 7UP and a long chat about school and friends and baseball; other times, the wave said all that needed to be said.

Not many people sit on the front porch anymore. But a lot of us sit in front of our computers. According to The Barna Report (Vol. 1, No. 3, 1996), Christians are just as technologically up-to-date as our non-Christian friends and neighbors. Ninety percent of Christians own VCRs, compared to 84 percent of non-Christians. Nearly one Christian in three owns a personal computer, and 29 percent have cellular phones. Christian computer owners are even more likely than others to have Internet access (23 percent compared to 17 percent)—an estimated 5.6 million Christians on the net.

Today's technology explosion has created unprecedented opportunities for spreading the gospel. Missionaries can communicate with supporters via e-mail. TV, radio, videotapes, and the Internet allow Christians to answer questions, share resources, and reach new audiences with God's Word.

Communication is hard work, though, and sometimes it's harder close to home. The astronomer who spends his day analyzing detailed photos from Mars (about 48.8 million miles away) may not hear what his kids say across the dinner table after he gets home from work. Many of us can remember a Coca-Cola commercial we heard 20 years ago, but can't recall what the preacher said at church last Sunday. We can send a fax to the other side of the world, but still wonder, "What did my wife say to me a few minutes ago?"

Today more than ever, we need the personal touch.

Christians affirm an important truth when we insist that God is personal. He's not a vague, nameless impersonal force. In the words of the late apologist Francis Schaeffer, he's "the God who is there"—the living God, the creator and sustainer of life—faithful, loving, unchanging, the great "I AM," our Father in Heaven.

He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he still calls his people by name. He thinks, plans, wills, and loves. You can't put him in a box or lock him inside a cathedral. He personally listens to our prayers, bears our burdens, and saves our souls. He's always there when we need him.

When God had good news to share, he took it personally to earth in the person of his Son. No high-tech tool can replace the joy of exclaiming, "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!" We need a personal friend like that.

Jesus calls his followers to become a world wide web of compassion as all of us, wherever we are, communicate his love personally to others. There's no substitute for personal interaction. We need to listen to one another, talk out our differences face-to-face, and remember the value of a sincere thank-you note, a well-timed hug, and an earnest prayer.

Times have changed, but the needs of the human heart remain the same. This week, don't keep God's love to yourself. Take it personally to someone who longs for the kind of personal touch I found years ago on Grandpa's front porch.