Social Cleansing

As much as we make fun of Tyler Perry's Madea role. Madea has on many occassions recited a quote that I used to hear my maternal grandmother say all the time, "Some people come into your life for a lifetime and some for a season". In the new era of Facebook, Twitter and Myspace and even some iPhone applications like Loopt and Blackberry applications like Ping, we are allowed to hold on to people and hold on to things that can potentially hold us back from meeting new and exciting people and experience adventurous things. I will say even though we are able to keep track of all of our "friends", we have not found a great way to keep track of 1) our friends birthdays 2) our friends favourite things 3) Important dates like anniversaries.



Friendship though some are long lasting and others aren't so much, I notice come in rotations in most peoples lives, depending on how social you are. It normally happens at the beginning of each summer and you now have a "cut-up buddy" That person that you hit the streets with, meet their friends and they meet yours and you instantly clique. For girls, you wear each others clothing or borrow each others jewelry. For the guys, we'll get each others tabs or go dutch on certain things likes car rentals and such. Then all of the sudden August and September comes around and things begin to thaw out. You all of the sudden don't hear from that person as frequently. The seasons change and who you hang out with also change. If the frienship you had with that person was something impacted your life, you may feel a bit strong about how come the two of you do not hang out as much. Then comes November and December before Christmas (not implying anything) and you hear from them very little unless you bump into them in the street somewhere. In any essence, that was an associate as my grandmother would say. In my grandmothers days she would have ripped out that persons number out of her phonebook and threw it in the garbage. My grandmother is 74, she has a cellphone but keeps a phonebook. The people that are in her cellphone are her neighbours, the fire department, the precint, Wayside Baptist Church members and her family. When odd numbers pop up, it goes to voicemail.



I have gone through several of what I call God's "social cleansing" out of my life. If they weren't meant to be there for long they would show it in their own actions. By not attempting to reach out. Because we have applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Ping, Loopt, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, AIM and so on. Two-way street reaching out has become much easier. If they log on and haven't spoken, let it slide. If you speak to them first and the answers are short are non responsive, then maybe you should re-evaluate what that person is there for. Maybe that person is only good for a good laugh or a kiki when you see them at the bar or the club. There is nothing wrong with that. But in terms of someone to confide in when things are tough and you need someone to talk to, you might want to dig a little deeper. Talk to your family if you can, talk to people that have been with you through thick and thin but also talk to Jesus. If you just give Jesus a little bit of time throughout the day even if it's just to say Thank you Lord, he will see the wrong and he will do what he needs to do to fix it. Jesus can be your best friend when nobody will pick up the phone. He can be your best friend when you don't have a phone to pick up, his spiritual line is always open and I am a true witness to that.

There are different types of social cleansing you can do on your own and there are certain cleansing mechanisms that God does to help you out just a little. Here are some things you can do to kindly and politely make your phonebook and friends list a bit lighter. Start sorting out what you use social networks for and if you have people that don't really speak alot you may want to delete them, reason being quite frankly because they may be there just to be nosy and see what you're doing and what pictures you are uploading. In terms of your phone look through your phone and ask yourself when's the last time you spoke to this person and that person, If you have think a bit too hard then press Delete and keep moving. This is not a blog to be shady about this situation, you have to know when it's time to lighten your load and do right by you because if you don't and God has a plan for you and you do not adhere to that plan, he will put you in a predicament where you have no other choice but to accept them out of your lives, like isolating you from being where they will be or even personally taking a hand in life itself and removing them so you can get to where you need to be. There is no reason why you are doing right and your "friend" isn't and you choose to be their friend anyway meanwhile you are holding yourself back, absolutely not that is not what your life should be about. You need to recognize the game before the game recognizes you and wipes you out.

Being the social person that I am, I have accepted this rotation that people come into my life however not every person that smiles in your face wishes you well and not every single person is meant to be around next year. Friends are like fashion sometimes "One minute you're in, the next minute you're out" and what may look good this year should not be worn next year. It happens, so what you need to concentrate on are those timeless peices that you wouldn't trade for the world.

God Bless and I hope you enjoyed my blog, Please leave comments :) I like those.