Thoughts On A Given Day

I have to admit that I was a Facebook holdout. I was not in the least interested in being on Facebook, or having anything to do with what I thought it represented. Admittedly, I didn’t really know much about it. I’m somewhat opposed to change in general, and Facebook was a change. I had lived without it for many years, and I didn’t see why I needed it now. I must also confess that I have changed my opinion. I have found Facebook to be a good way to keep up with scattered friends and family. I am far more informed now about what is going on in the lives of people that I do care about than I ever was before. I’m not suggesting that looking at a Facebook page is better than picking up a phone and talking with someone, or that it is better than actually visiting with that same person, but when that is not an option Facebook is a good way to go. No, this is not an advertisement for Facebook. It’s simply an observation.

After my first summer working at Fort Caswell, The North Carolina Baptist Assembly, which I have written about before, I returned the following two Summers to continue working there. I wanted to give back some of what I had received during my first summer there. At the time I thought I was living the best of both worlds. During the school year I was in the mountains of North Carolina, attending Appalachian State University in Boone. During the summers I was at the coast at Caswell. I made many good friends during those years, both at school, and at Caswell. Those I was closest to were in both places with me. We were in school together most of the year, and we worked together at Caswell during the summer. It was great. Those people meant a lot to me. I met the love of my life during my second summer at Caswell, and my third summer there we worked together as an engaged couple. That was wonderful, but I am sorry to say that, except for my wife and my younger brother, who worked there with me as well, and with whom I shared an apartment at school, and one or two other close friends, I totally lost contact with those people that I cared so much about during that period of my life. I have no excuse. I keep to myself a lot. I rarely write letters. I rarely call anyone. I am a cave dweller. I do not hold anyone responsible for my loss of contact with my friends other than myself.

I stayed away from Caswell for approximately 20 years until my oldest son decided to take a summer job there. He had heard stories all his life about Caswell, but he had never been there, and he wanted to experience what my wife and I had experienced. So while he was working there, we visited during parents weekend, something they never had when I was working there. I was amazed at the changes that had taken place on the Assembly grounds. The buildings had been renovated, there was air conditioning, the staff had phones and could talk with people in the outside world, there were TVs – it was different. Yet, in many ways it was the same. The staff still had the same mission that we had had so many years before, to serve and honor God. The summer staff still developed a closeness and comradeship that you can only develop in a place like Caswell. Since that first visit we have been back to Caswell many times. My son worked there for several summers. My next oldest son worked there for several summers as well, and he also worked a few years on the full-time staff. They both made friends at Caswell, just like I did and my wife did. The difference was they didn’t lose contact. They have managed to stay in touch with their friends far better than we ever did, because technology has made it so easy to do. Cell phones and computers make a huge difference in their ability to communicate.

I was thrilled when I first went back to Caswell after such a lengthy time away. It felt good to renew acquaintances with people that I had worked with years before. Some of them had bridged the entire span of years working at Caswell. It was great to meet them again, and hear their stories of the passage of years in their lives at Caswell. It was exciting to meet parents who were there for parents weekend like we were, people we had worked with whose children were now at Caswell, like our children were, “living the dream,” so to speak. It was wonderful to be invited to staff reunions and meet people that we had worked with so long ago. Thank you to those who have organized such things. I know that I would have never gone if my children had not been involved, but it was nice when I did go. There are still many people, however, that we had absolutely no contact with, no clue of where they were, no idea of what they had done with their lives after they left Caswell. This is where Facebook comes into the picture. It’s an amazing thing to be able to click on a computer and see people that I knew then, that I have wondered about, and be able to see what direction their lives have gone, what their children look like, whatever it is that they want to share. It doesn’t make up for me being a cave dweller, but it does help.

I know that as we go through life. There will always be severed relationships, there will always be forks in the road, there will always be a different path for some of us to take, and sometimes we lose contact. In my case, we usually lose contact. Shame on me. I could have, and should have, done better. We as Christians need to support one another as much as possible. There should be a unity among us. I don’t think it is any accident that the Apostle Paul so often included personal salutations in his letters to the early church. His letters were always personal. So should we be. People are important. Staying personal is important. Staying in touch with one another is important. It was then. It is now.

Galatians 6:10

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

John 17:20-23

New International Version (NIV)

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.