So when it comes to unfriending someone on facebook, it’s a pretty simply thing. Search their name. Click and button. They are no longer your friend.

The ways we unfriend in real-non-social-media ways are more varied. Sometimes our unfriend methods take great effort and leave even great pain. Sometimes they are unintentional, sometimes they require a great deal of thought. Some of them are obvious. Some are more subtle.

Tiger Woods hit the unfriend button when he decided to have an affair. Hines Ward hit the unfriend button when he called Ben a coward without knowing the full story. Notre Dame hit the unfriend button for their football coach. A lie can hit the unfriend button. So can busyness. Unintentional hurts can hit it as can a judgmental spirit. Pride has its finger on the button almost all the time and from the other side, depression can hit the unfriend button in a time when befriending is so needed.

So how do we re-connect after an unfriending experience? Forgiveness, which sometimes looks like mercy and sometimes looks like grace is a great reconnector. Giving others the benefit of the doubt can create a be-friend scenario.

Loneliness is viral. So is grace. How do you unfriend and reconnect?