The Communication Age...

I know what you're thinking, that's the name of one of the Urbanies songs from their first EP! which is found free on their site www.urbanitesmusic.com. And i would say to you, YOU ARE CORRECT!
However, not the reason for my post. No no, rather it has to do with my reflections of communication that youth have today. I was telling someone recently that after my first Royal Servants trip i had to wait about a week to get my 12 rolls of film developed and my parents changed our long distance plan so i could call my friend in canada once a week. Also, we wrote letters to eachother to stay in touch. i know foreign right? NOT really that long ago, it was in 2001! but when i was telling a student that they looked at me like i'd just gotten finished riding in my wagon on the Oregon trail!
Now we have facebook, texting, cell phones, digital cameras and status updates! its crazy really. when we're wrestling to apply what God did in our lives over the course of the summer and need a listening ear from someone who understands, we don't write a 12 page letter and send it off, we call a friend and instantly have someone there! its really strange... in a good way i think most of the time. It helps hold us accountable, it helps give support, but do we really continue to know one another by writing "i love you" on their facebook wall once a day for 6 months after the trip? i'm going to go out on a limb and say yes. HERE'S why. Erin Bidwell, Kristy Swanson, Suzanne Bailey, i could go on. These people i could not talk to at all for 6 months or a year even and if i saw them or talked to them, things bounce right back. WHY? you ask? well because something is accomplished on a Royal Servants trip that isn't many other places, TRUE COMMUNITY. and because of that, even if it's just a quick, hey i love you on a semi-regular basis.... it just reminds us that there's someone else out there who gets it, someone else out there who cares.