The Downfalls of Technology

I've fallen prey to checking in on my friends via emails, facebook messages, text messages, and tweets. There I said it. I'm terrible at picking up the phone to call and check-in on someone.  I posted a facebook post today and it just kind of backfired.

I didn't see a friend at church today. I commented on her facebook wall to say that I missed seeing she and her husband. She replied with what I thought was a pretty defensive response because as it turned out, they skipped church. I didn't know that when I sent the message. Dustyn and I got to church late today (by fifteen minutes) and we didn't get to sit with our normal crowd. After church, we went to the area where they sell books because the message today was about a new book The History of Redemption that will help memorize scripture easily. I was really interested because I was so moved by today.  Dustyn was running late for KidStuff so he ran off and we didn't connect with anyone before he went to teach. I left to go read.

I never saw any of our normal gang. I sincerely didn't know that they weren't at church, and I wouldn't have tried to call them out even if I had known they skipped.  I'm non-confrontational. I don't like drama.

Later in the day, I asked this same friend if she and her husband wanted to meet us for coffee because they'd been away for Thanksgiving. She said yes, but immediately assumed I was asking because something was wrong. I guess she thought that either a) we don't normally ask them to do things like this, so something was up, or b) we wanted to talk to them about missing church?  I hadn't yet explained that I didn't mean to point out they'd missed church when I left the initial facebook post.

The point of all of this is that I really should have just picked up the phone today. I should have tried to be more personable and flexible with my time. Instead, I just decided to post something on facebook that only took a second because I didn't want to get into a really long conversation. I was being so selfish.  That selfishness turned into self-consciousness, and immediately when I saw her at coffee I felt the need to explain that I didn't mean to hurt her feelings if I did - that I just wanted to say hello and that I missed them.

From now on, I resolve to pick up the phone. And to not just send a text message. Or email. Or facebook message/post or tweet. To call and talk.