Back in February I received a call from a friend. Their first words to me took me aback. “Is there something you need to tell your wife”? I racked my brain... had I done or said anything to offend my wife that I needed to apologize and ask forgiveness for… and how would this person calling me know anything about whatever it was. I felt I was being set up and since nothing was coming to me all I could say was "er...no?"
They just kept pressing. “There is nothing you need to confess…what’s going on…so your telling me there is nothing your wife needs to know about”. I was at a total loss.
I was like just get to the point!! “What are you talking about?!?”
Finally they did. “I read the comments on your blog…(in bold are the words they stressed as they read it back to me) “Thanks for the link….love. It was good connecting with you. Hopefully, we'll make that connection face-to-face before too long. I look forward to it." "Sounds like an emotional affair to me!!”
It took me a second to realize what they were reading…then I totally cracked up. I felt like I was in updated episode of I Love Lucy? This person is on line and reads my blog however they don’t really know much about the net, the lingo, or how it works. They were referring to a comment to my blog made by another pastor who was thanking me for including a link to his church plant in a recent post. I had spoken to his pastor through Twitter and on the phone about church planting and we agreed we should get togather face to face next time he was passing through town. Click here to read the blog and see the comments.
My caller freaked out even more when I told them “That comment is from another pastor.” which made me laugh even more. After I started breathing again I explained everything to them, who made the commentand what they were talking about. I even went to Wikipedia and read them the definition “link love” and pointed them back to the context of the blog at which point the lights came on and it all made since to them.
After talking through it they felt really silly, but in their defense they told me they had recently been in conversations with friends whose spouses had affairs with people they met on-line (defining the context of their thinking) . They also admited they were on medication that the doctor warned them would make their thinking a little “fuzzy”. (
Whether it is the Bible or a blog, this is a great example of how understanding the language/lingo and knowing the context of what you are reading is so important. It is also a great example of why when a doctor tells you that while taking certain medication not to operate heavy machinery or make any major life decision (like accusing a pastor of having an affair), you should listen.
For the next few weeks my wife and I would keep asking each other for little "link love"…and then cracking up. Oh, my life at times is better than any sit-com. Hey…maybe I should write a pilot. I do have permission to share this story as long as I don’t reveal the blog readers identity, unless I sell the story as a the plot of a TV sitcom...at which time I have to share the royalties. LOL
