Introduction: Ever found or experienced a place/group/kinship where you were more than just a member, but were part of a family? 

Background and Context: I do a great amount of reading and research as part of my vocation in ministry. Why? In order to understand the times and know what to do. I have discovered a principle that grows more and more important daily. It centers on the principle of belonging to a spiritual family. 

Much of my study reveals that, generally speaking, folks in our era are living a corrosive paradox. What is it? We are more electronically connected but spiritually-isolated than ever before. We can reach someone across the planet in seconds, but we don’t have anyone who cares. That is, to be plain, tragic. 

Shelves of books are being written about the epidemic/pandemic of loneliness that confronts today’s world. Folks are on their gadgets but have no meaningful connections. 

Perhaps you are like I am in that you sense the double-edged nature of technology. I relish the fact that I can have a Dostoyevsky novel or a C.S. Lewis book in hardback or paperback delivered to my residence in a day. That excites me to no end. But I also understand that receiving a text message from someone is not the same as hanging out with him/her. Technology is convenient but it is a poor substitute for a spiritual family. 

Connection to Our Daily Lives: This past Sunday I was with my biological family and my spiritual family. My wife, son, and I were at our church (our daughter has moved out and supports herself now). We went to our Sunday school classes and to our corporate worship services. My wife, part of the music ministry at the church, played keyboards and sang. I taught a Sunday school class. We sang hymns and spiritual songs. Our son was part of youth ministry. We sat together as a family in corporate worship and listened to a solid, biblical homily from a wise teaching pastor at our church from Jeremiah 17 on the necessity of trusting the Lord. 

And Sunday night I attended our men’s discipleship class where we studied particular passages from Psalms and 1 & 2 Samuel. And as I drove back to post today in order to prepare for another day of soldiering tomorrow, I have communicated via email and texting (a huge blessing of technology) with my spiritual family to pray for one of our own as she has undergone surgery. And we are praying for another who will undergo surgery tomorrow. And the list goes on. 

What’s the point? That having a spiritual family you love and that loves you back is essential by divine design. We are crafted for fellowship, for pouring into one another, for coming alongside one another.  

Takeaway & Encouragement:  Foster, cultivate, and feed your spiritual family. The return on investment is invaluable. In the biblical worldview, it is essential: “a threefold cord is not quickly broken,” a wise man wrote (Eccl 4:12, ESV). And Christ himself told us, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (Jn 13:34). Having a spiritual family, a place where you show and receive love, is essential, and desperately needed, especially amidst all the idols and substitutes for our designed need of actual spiritual families rather than mere simulacra or avatars.