Speak/Listen

Twice today I was reminded of perhaps the most important thing in life.

Relationships.

For in relationships we find two things - people and love.  In fact I am not sure any of the three can even exist independently of the other.  That is how we were created.....that is what makes us whole.

More important than status.  More important than money.  More important than success.  More important than "things."

Relationships are built into our very being.  They are at the center of what makes us truly human.  What makes us "greater than the birds and creatures of the earth."  We are distinct.  Special.  Precious.  Created to enjoy each other.  To enjoy creation.  To enjoy our world......together......in harmony.   I believe true life is ignited inside each one of us as we learn to love and trust in each other.

I have a test for you today.  Have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror?  Dumb question.  But have you actually.....really looked at YOU.  Go look in the mirror.  Stare at yourself.  Don't look at your face, your lips, your eyebrows, your freckles, your zits, even your eyeball.  But look right inside of yourself.  Look directly into the very pupil of your eye.  The black.  Your soul.  See it?   That....is you.  

Weird eh?  It often freaks me out a little.  It's like I can see something eternal......something beyond just "me" as I know it.  I am more than just random molecules or matter.  There is a whole other part of myself.  Something deep down inside myself.   It's as if I can see LIFE itself - living right inside of me.  We all have it.  We all are alive.  It is our gift.  There to share with whoever we choose.

The beautiful part about it is, when we do take the chance to share it with others something profound occurs.  Relationship is born.  Trust, joy, love, experience, memory, and passion is birthed.  Our lives are elevated.  This is how it is supposed to be.  God has made us as relational beings.  We are to enjoy each other.  We are to celebrate life together.  We are to share our joys, laughter, sorrows and pains.........not alone..........but with one another.  It is magical.  God calls us his most prized possession.  His most celebrated of all creation.  We are complex, rich and invaluable in his eyes.

Without each other......I think we would cease to exist.  Life would not be....well.....life.  We need each other.  We need people to laugh with, to cry with, to run with, to joke with, to eat with......to just be with.  People, relationships, love - are more valuable than gold......more precious than silver.....more beautiful than diamonds.  Hold onto them tightly.

I realized this in two ways today.  The first came on a wave of frustration and pain.  I felt a relationship beginning to be severed......torn apart......and it hurt.  I tasted betrayal, something replaced relationship.  And then heartache ensued.  Relationships are complex, and need trust, honesty, sacrifice, communication and loyalty to survive.  They take work.  They take time.  They take patience.  They take perseverance.  It is no wonder that often when a marriage falls apart - one of these aspects is missing.  I am learning, as hard as it can be sometimes, they are worth fighting for.  I will try.

The second came as I was preparing to leave for my trip today.  3 friends came over and wanted to pray for me.  They knew they wouldn't see me for awhile, that I was excited and yet nervous.  I realized during their words how precious they were to me.  It was their presence more than there words that blessed me this evening.  They truly cared for me.  They were scared/excited/nervous with me.   And we shared that together.  A bond.  A common tie.  Life.   

I think this is why leaving is so hard.  Saying goodbye, no matter what the circumstance is, is never easy.  Anytime you share life with someone, a bond - relationship, is slowly created - as we learn to trust and love and lean on each other.  This is why funerals, after a whole life is lived and shared, are all the more difficult.  There is something about death that is not natural.  A break of this infinite connection shared together.  Someone we have let into our lives,  who's journeyed with us and shares our story.....appears to be gone.   Forever.  

 

BUT (thanks again Brian).  The Creator of our universe, of our life, of our existence, of our RELATIONSHIPS.........IS still writing this story we find ourselves in.  And it does not end there.  As important as I find my relationships on this earth....with my family, with my friends.....they pale in comparison to the one with my Creator King.  For he is the very artist behind them all.  Relationship is His - they stem from Him.  He created us as relational beings, because HE IS relational.  Relationships here on earth are but a fraction of the beauty, depth and hope found in my relationship with Him.  It is my relationship with my Creator King, my Father in heaven, that keeps me going day in and day out.  I find peace and hope that no matter what continent, country or town I find myself in....He will be there.   With me.  

And so life here on this earth begins to be less about me, less about my relationships with others.......and more about my relationship, my connection, my heart beating with Him.  He wants us to enjoy each other, yes, but above all he wants us to seek and find and enjoy Him.   When relationships fade, break or die, we can trust that His never will.  And through Him, we can have the strength to heal them, mend them and have hope to see them whole again.  Death is not the end for those who seek and find - whose hearts beat with Christ's.  This is only the beginning.  What we now know in part, we will know then, in full.

We can now live with hope and expectation.  Our relationships now become a celebration of what is to come.  Not a means to an end.  We can live with glorious expectation because we know that then, there will be no goodbyes, there will be no severing, there will be no leaving, no dying.  That is His promise.  This is where relationship with Him and with each other will finally be complete.  Relationship as it was meant to be.  

So although it saddens me to leave some of my dearest relationships behind, I have a joy that new ones will be cultivated.   Where more life will begin.  So for the next 3 days, before I leave, I want to enjoy the deep, abiding relationships God has so graciously given me here as much as I can.  I will suck them in with all I got.  I would suggest....you do the same.