As connected, informed, and globalized as we are through social media and the internet, we’re also becoming more and more lonely. Fewer and fewer people admit to having close friends, and as life becomes more automated and individualized, it’s easier to go through our days without any meaningful interactions with other people.

But this is far from the life that God designed for us. From the opening pages of Genesis to the end of the human story in Revelation, we see that God has always intended us to live in close proximity to one another — Adam walked with God and was still lonely before Eve; Abraham is called out to create a new close knit family; Jesus does ministry while in deep relationship with his disciples; Paul takes close friends like Barnabas and Timothy with him on his ministry journeys; and the early church grows because of their radical inclusion of their neighbors.

To recapture these lost relationships and live the way God intended, we start with a simple step: moving towards people in proximity the way God moves towards us.