I never knew my grandpa. He died before I was born. But, he retired from the Coca-Cola company, and as a result of his years of dedication to the company, my family has always been a Coke family. Through the years, my parents’ home has collected a wide variety of Coca-Cola memorabilia. My favorite pieces of Coke merchandise declare, “It’s the real thing.”
As a Coke family, the “real thing” is what we were always about (important piece of information, I rarely drink soft-drinks anymore, but I still LOVE a red can Coke on occasion). We knew the real thing from the fake thing by taste, texture, and smell. I could pick out a Pepsi, an RC, or a Tab from a mile away. When Pepsi introduced Pepsi One, I was lured into trying one on a hot summer day and threw it out the window of the truck (sorry, I know littering is wrong). It may have been the nastiest thing I ever tasted.
Coca-Cola is the real thing and anything else is a poor substitute.
In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, mark me down as a guy who believes that the this time of social distancing could result in a return to real community. For more than a decade we have dabbled in the online world and right now we are grateful for the opportunity to remain connected even while socially distant. But, this isn’t the real thing.
As social distancing wanes on, it is increasingly obvious that online community is a poor substitute for the real thing. Online community–social media, blogs, news outlets–can be wonderful additions to our social lives. Online community can actually add to the sense of belonging that we experience as communal people. However, online community is a poor replacement for actual community.
We are thankful for YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. We are glad that we can listen to sermons online and even connect over platforms like Zoom for meetings, classes, and corporate prayer. We are thrilled that kids can FaceTime with grandparents and that doctors can offer tele-health services.
However, we long for the days when we can embrace our loved ones, gather with our churches, and cheer for our sports teams. Regardless of the speed of your internet connection, you can’t imitate the experience of eating a hotdog at a baseball game, feeling the wind off of a Nascar, or the joy of a kid getting his first little league hit. Technology cannot reproduce a hug from your mom or the experience of gathered worship in local churches.
You can watch your pastor preach, but you can’t feel the hymnbooks, smell the old sanctuary, or hold newborn babies. God created us as social beings and we long for the day when we can once again move from virtual reality, to plain, old fashioned, regular reality.
In many ways, our online communities are like Pepsi in the Thompson house. If you are dehydrated and dying, Pepsi might keep you alive, but it will never satisfy.
Virtual community is a blessing right now that keeps us connected, but it won’t ever satisfy. It’s a trickle of water in a dry desert, but it is not the deluge we long for. Virtual community is good enough, until something better comes along.
That better thing is the community that we were created to build, sustain, benefit from, and enjoy. It’s the real thing, and I can’t wait to get back to it.
