Facebook (A Fickle Friend)

I have been on Facebook almost daily for quite a spell now. There's just something about feeling closer to people you know and care about even if they're far away or not someone you would normally talk to each day. I know it sounds funny, but I really love my Facebook friends. It doesn't hurt that most of them are my actual friends and family. I love when my little "Friend Request" lights up and I get to see someone's face that I haven't for a while. I like to hear about the mundane or exciting or thoughtful things people I care about have going on. I have been enamored by Facebook for a while and yesterday I got to see its true colors. A little over a month ago, I had the greatest Facebook week in history. I found one of my best friends from my college days. He was friends with a small handful of great guy friends that we used to hang out with DAILY. I was so excited to get in touch with them all and see how they were all doing. They're lives ran the gamut. They were all married, some with kids, some without, some eastcoast, some westcoast, some doing what they always thought/hoped they would be, some right where they belonged all along without realizing it. One of the guys was just getting out of the hospital from having a tumor removed. This is where Facebook got ugly. We chatted about his return home and the time he could now spend with his wife and young son. We wished each other well. Yesterday morning I checked my Facebook home page to check up on everyone and share my hopes for a clean house only to find that my friend had passed away in the night while sleeping with his family. I almost gave up Facebook completely. Why would I want to reconnect with people only to lose them just as quickly? The problem with that thinking is that I wouldn't be given the opportunity to reconnect at all. This small group of guys was my first set of college friends. They were the ones who challenged me to go to class everyday (not that I accepted the challenge very often). I'm in a weird spot. Do I go to his service which is 4 hours away (nothing in the grand scheme of things) or do I remain a Facebook sympathizer? Do I leave uplifting and precious remarks on his page, his family's pages, our friends pages and cry in front of my computer screen, or do I solidify my commitment to his "Friend Request" and step out as a friend would to physically be there as a support to his widow, his son, and his family despite having never had met them? My heart is opting for option number two. Whether they recognize that I'm there or remember that I came doesn't matter. I am thankful for prayer and a God who loves me. I will be checking to see when the service is and God-willing, I will be on my way to NY in the next day or two. Jeremy, may God watch over your family and friends during this time of grieving and bless you with a special room in Heaven.