The older I get, the harder I find it to keep up with new terms the younger generation creates. I find myself using Google to understand what new terms mean. One such new term I recently came across is "ghost or ghosted." So, if you find someone much younger than yourself using this term, here is what it means: “Ghosting – when someone cuts off all communication without explanation – extends to all things, it seems. Most of us think about it in the context of digital departure: a friend not responding to a text, or worse, a lover, but it happens across all social circumstances, and it's tied to the way we view the world."

Every one of us has had times we were ghosted. Relationship problems have been around since the departure from the Garden of Eden. It was only a short time from Genesis 3 and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden to Genesis 4 and the murder of Abel by his brother Cain.

Our sinfulness often affects our relationships, often in very destructive ways. You will fail the people in your life. You will misspeak. You will act in anger. You will hurt with your words and your actions. Jesus told us, "Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!" (Luke 17:1).

It is how we fix our relationship failures that is important. Jesus gave detailed instructions for how a church family should fix an issue that was causing harm to the church, including relationship issues. He told his disciples in Matthew 18:15-17 that the first step to resolving these issues is for you to go to the individual alone to work the problems out.   In other words, ghosting is not acceptable to our Lord. The Lord wants us to work out our issues or disagreements and come to a place of reconciliation. Ghosting allows our relational conflicts to win. We should never allow a conflict to destroy a relationship.

Jesus calls us to a higher living than ghosting people. The Bible reminds us to "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Ephesians 4:31-32). 

Jesus commands me to forgive as He has forgiven me. Jesus wants me to find kindness and compassion and exhibit them to those who have wronged me and to do it as He has toward me. We all have given Him plenty of reasons to ghost us.

Our sinfulness and rebellion deserve a ghosting from the Lord, but instead, He loves us and offers compassion and forgiveness. His promise to us is, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).

Don't ghost people because often what we do comes back around, and we will be ghosted ourselves. It is painful when people abandon you and leave. Remember that pain and act. I encourage you to look at the relationships you have in your life. Have you ghosted someone? Have you abandoned your relationship without trying to work things out? I encourage you to get back involved in those relationships. Have a cup of coffee and work things out. You would be surprised how God can work things out if we only make an effort.