Almost exactly a year ago, The Atlantic published an article by Amanda Mull lamenting one of COVID’s unacknowledged side-effects. “The pandemic,” she wrote, “has evaporated entire categories of friendship, and by doing so, depleted the joys that make up a human life—and buoy human health.” I saw the same phenomenon in my own life; reading Mull’s piece, I realized I was missing casual conversations with friends and small talk during church coffee hour more than I thought.

Since then, our plague-wracked planet has taken another trip around the sun, and our friendships aren’t faring well at all. In his poignant longform article, pastor Jeremy Linneman surveys where our relationships have been and considers where they are headed. In addition to our society’s pre-existing “loneliness pandemic,” increasing partisanship and social media usage have eroded the ties that bind us to church members, neighbors, and co-workers.

So, what can we do? Linneman suggests three simple things—things God’s people have always done—to repair and rebuild our friendships: show up, take initiative, look around, and exercise patience. We may be entering the pandemic’s third year, but if we follow Linneman’s counsel, this one might not be quite so lonely.

In Christ,