I recently read a book by the late Jonathan Sacks. He was the chief Rabbi from 1991 and died in 2020. I always enjoyed listening to his Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4.

In the book, he makes the point that we are living in an age where there is too much ‘I’ and too little ‘We’. He explains that in many areas of life, what people used to do together, they now do alone. This can lead to loneliness, and he makes the point that we are not made to live alone.

The fifth book in the New Testament is the Acts of the Apostles. It tells the story of what happened after Jesus left his disciples. In the very first chapter, we are told that the eleven disciples and a number of women, including Jesus’ mother, met together regularly.

In the next few chapters we are told that the believers shared their lives together and looked after one another. So their way of living was very much ‘We’, not ‘I’.

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“In 2011, the University of Kentucky studied the lyrics of the top-ten pop songs between 1980 and 2007. They discovered that the use of the first-person plural pronouns - we, us, our - had declined, while the first-person pronouns - I, me, mine - had increased.

In 1970, George Harrison wrote a song for the Beatles called “I me mine.” In the song, the phrase “I Me Mine” comes six times, and the line “I Me Me Mine” comes eight times. That’s a total of 14 times! He explained that “I Me Mine' is all about the ego problem, one feature of which can be an inflated ego where a person has an exaggerated sense of self-importance, often perceiving themselves as superior to others.

“A significant shift from ‘We’ to ‘I’ has come about because of social media. In the world of social media, although we are in contact with many people, that form of communication is very different from having a face-to-face conversation with someone. In his book, Jonathan Sacks points out that it is unhealthy to spend several hours a day in front of the screen.

It would be good to follow the example of the early followers of Jesus who regularly met together face-to face.

So is there someone you have not seen or spoken to for some time? Instead of sending a text message or a What’s App, why not invite that person to have a coffee with you or go for a walk together?