i can haz devoshunulz?

I was just browsing some respectable Christian websites, when I came across an advertisement for a new devotional called LOL with God: Devotional Messages of Hope and Humor for Women. Now, I'm all for devotionals, and I definitely think there's value to gender/age/season-of-life-specific devotional books, but something about this particular book just seems...sad. The front cover has pictures of a number of women of all ages and races laughing while texting or talking on their cell phones. With whom are they texting? With their boyfriends/husbands? With their girlfriends/sisters/mothers? With God? And what are they laughing about? Sure, there are some places in the Bible where I'll chuckle when I come across it during DT, but I wouldn't really say there are a whole lot of LOL moments.

But the reason I say I feel sad about this is because I think it points to something more fundamentally lacking in Christian circles. It's as if the church has said, "we know you want someone to talk to and encourage you and to be your friend - someone you can exchange hilarious text-messages with, just like you see your teenage daughters doing...but we can't do that for you. Jesus is your best friend - why don't you try text-messaging Him?"

In short, it seems as if some authors/publishers/ministry have seen a need a need for fellowship and companionship that is supposed to be fulfilled by the Church or by marriage - i.e. a divinely-appointed human institution. But rather than focus on the failing of that institution and seeking a remedy, they instead are trying to fit God into a box when He's in fact so much more. Just ask the woman at the well (John 4). You could say all she was looking for was a text-messaging buddy. She'd had 5 husbands, and was with a new guy who wasn't even her husband. She comes out to the well and meets Jesus and is like, "What, you're talking to me now? What can you give me that I haven't already tried?" Then Jesus tells her everything she ever did. Try fitting that into a text-message.