I love the people I meet online. That may sound crazy, I know, but I really care about them. I celebrate when they have a good day and I worry when things go badly. I pray for the people in my online community and I let them know I do it. Amazingly, no one has ever complained.
Most of them – as far as I know – do not follow Christ. If my love for them was based on their decision to follow Christ, or their potential decision, it would be a perverted echo of the love that Jesus is all about. Jesus loves me no matter what. He loves them no matter what. If I am a follower of Christ, I have to love people unconditionally – online or offline.
I am rambling, but I have an important point – if you don’t genuinely love and care about people, you will never reach them. If they can’t tell that you care, nothing else you do matters.
All of the tools we talk about on this site are really tools to express love. Twitter is all about meeting new people and showing them that you care. Facebook and MySpace are tools you can use to open your life, be transparent, and show people you care. My blog is a way of inviting people into my living room so they can know me and I can get to know them.
Reaching the online generation means loving the online generation. The greater your capacity for love, the more potential you have for making a difference. If you want to start a movement, then your love better be God-sized.
Meditate on 1 Corinthians 13 with me today. I would love to hear the ways you show an online generation that you care.
