I admit when I joined Facebook about 13 years ago, I did it to stalk my children. When they were living away or in college, I knew immediately what was going on just by their Facebook status. I knew if they had a good day or a bad day. Sometimes I knew what they had for lunch. Often, I could tell if they were skipping classes or stayed out too late the night before. Now I like to see pictures of my grandchildren.

However, Facebook has been a great vetting tool. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a rumor only to go to their page to see if it is true or not. Or you hear someone is pregnant and start watching their page for the baby announcement. Or my personal favorite, you hear some chitchat about a breakup or a new romance or an engagement and immediately you head to their page to check out their relationship status, because you know what they say, “not official until it’s Facebook official.”

So it got me to thinking, what if God had a Facebook page? Would you be friends? Would you like his posts? Or better yet, what would your relationship status be with God? There are several to choose from – in a relationship, open relationship and it’s complicated are just a few of your options.

Would you be “in a relationship”? In other words, all in, all day every day? For me, that means God and I talk over everyday decisions and future goals. I also feel that because I am in a relationship with God, he
influences my daily actions in the same way I don’t want my actions to jeopardize my relationship with my husband. Perhaps, you are not quite all in with God. Maybe you feel like you are “single” or in an “open
relationship” trying to make it all on your own. Not ready to fully commit. Or maybe you have been disappointed, felt let down, invisible or unheard? Prayers seem to go unanswered, so why bother. It’s just easier to be “divorced” of it all. Or maybe you’re just not sure. “It’s complicated.” Sometimes when you see a beautiful sunset or things are going well in your life, you think to yourself “their must be a God” and then you turn on the news and well . . . it all bad news, so you think “how can there be a God!” I totally get that.

I am pretty sure I have been in every relationship status possible with God. That’s human nature and a tale as old as time. Thank God, it is not God’s nature. He waits. He waits with open arms for us to choose to be in a relationship. If you want to talk more about your relationship status with God, you know how to find me.

On the journey,
Ramonalynn Bethley

Ramonalynn Bethley is the pastor at First United Methodist Church of Alexandria. If you would like to contact Ramonalynn, please email her at DrRevRL@fumca.org.