An app to rekindle the relationships you always wanted to keep

I have to tell you about a new app I’ve been enjoying. I k now, I know, the last thing you need is another app to navigate and figure out and to make sure you have enough space on your phone.  But this app is very simple, and in a weird way, life changing in regards to the relationship in our lives.  It’s called Marco Polo

Let’s start with how I heard about the app.  My friend Dave, who has been a brother to me for years now, and who also started this non profit organization that you should check out and support, asked me to join it.  I did and we started leaving video messages for each other on a regular basis.  Like almost every day.  Before we talked one every few weeks and messaged one another every week, but now we talked almost every day.

What really connected me to the power of the app though, was when Dave started a thread with our mutual friend, Jeff.  I knew Jeff from college (the same place I first met Dave), but I didn’t know Jeff as well.  He was a great acquaintance, and I enjoyed when I ran in to him on social media or when Dave would gather up all his friends for his wedding in Atlanta or his 40th birthday party in Austin, but the times we talked were rare at best.

After a few months of posting and watching video messages on a daily basis to and from Dave and Jeff, I realized that I considered Jeff a good friend!  All it took was a very little discipline and the ability to watch and care about their videos as much as I cared about getting out my own daily life information.

So now I’ve shared the app with many of my close friends from the last 44 years of my life and in different circles and places.

If you have a group of friends from an old church, an old school, college, or a work place, and it’s been hard to get them together, jump on Marco Polo, and make a new habit to rekindle your everyday friendships.

It will be awkward at first, talking into your phone and telling them about your day or your night or the basketball game you went to, or the recital your kid is in, but that’s what you did when you were closest to that circle back in the day, so why not become close to them again?

I challenge you to remember the people in your life who at one point (if you are close to people now and you already have the systems in place, I wouldn’t worry about this yet) you were super close to, but time has overtaken the relationships.  Invite them to Marco Polo, and say something like this:  “Uh, Hi!  How’s life?  Today I’m going to be cleaning the house, then doing some writing, and then picking up the kids and hanging out with them.  I’ll probably ask them about their school day.  ________________ is struggling with school.  Please pray for them.  How have you been?

After a few weeks of making that a habit and listening to your friends videos, I promise you’ll feel closer to them again.

And in the end, you’ll never regret the close relationships you had with the people you love, button may regret losing those relationships.

#stoptheregret