Messy Relationships

July 7, 2009 in Christian Life with 2 Comments

It becomes painstakingly obvious, both through perception of others and personal experience, that relationships can be messy. Marriage. Parental. Friendships. Church. You name it. Humans make relationships messy.

 

2 Corinthians 12:11-21 is a passage I find terribly saddening. That Paul felt compelled to bring the epistle to a close with such words is so unfortunate. Once again, it’s proof that relationships can be incredibly messy.

 

I can think of only one relationship that is devoid of such dysfunction: Father, Son and Spirit. And yet Christ prayed as if it were possible for his followers to actually function in divine harmony,

 

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe on me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them as you loved me. John 17:20-23.

 

The trinity sets the precedent for relational harmony. This is why living by the Spirit and walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25) is requisite. Our relationship with the divine paves the way for harmonious accord in the body (Romans 8:5-11; Romans 12:4-8). Where the divine is absent in human relationships, so is the potential for perfect oneness one with another.

Criticism

July 6, 2009 in Christian Life with 7 Comments

It’s amazing how easy it is to tear something down as opposed to building something. Recently, my father-in-law and I broke down a large, wooden swing set in about 30 minutes. When my dad, my father-in-law and I originally put it together, it took the better part of 6 hours. It came down a lot easier than it went up.

 

In Romans 15:1-2, Paul says, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” Christians are to be in the business of building one another up. It’s not a simple process; moreover, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort. But it’s essential to who we are and is a part of our born anew by Jesus’ blood genetic make-up.

 

Criticism, though, comes much easier to us. It’s not introspective; therefore, it allows us to play judge and jury without compunction. Criticism is destructive and with ease it can bring a person down like a stone from the sling of a Israelite shepherd boy.

 

Inevitably, today or tomorrow or the next day, you are going be in a position to either build a person up who needs it or tear a person down who doesn’t need it. Please choose the former and not the latter! It’s what God would have you to do.

Transitions

July 1, 2009 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

The last two months have been immensely intense, terribly frustrating, and yet incredibly enlightening. Uprooting a family from one state to another, selling a house for which we took a horrible hit, having to say “See ya later” (we refused to use the word “goodbye” if at all possible) to people we love tremendously, and struggling to overcome sleep deprivation from an experience I wanted to forget have made transitioning into a new work not the most pleasant experience in the world. But now that we’ve turned the corner on the things listed above, things are considerably better.

Transitions are a fact of life for us all. Some are easier than others to endure. The transition from junior high to high school is significantly less taxing than the transition from high school to college. The transition from high school to college pales in comparison to that of single life to married life. All transitions carry varying degrees of adaptive difficulties.

I think it providential that not long before I would face what has been my toughest transition to date, I’d been given a number of different books to help along the way. One such book was William Bridges’s Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes. How fitting!

All of this has put a number of different things into perspective for me.

  • God’s presence no longer seems afar, nor should it (Acts 17:27-28).
  • I am definitely attuned to God’s opening of doors for his servants (Revelation 3:8).
  • Family must be forged with love, patience, and endurance.
  • Friends are indeed precious!

No Time

June 16, 2009 in Updates with 2 Comments

Feverish packing, selling a house, and considerable planning for a new work have left me with no time here. Sorry. I will continue to be out of pocket for a while, but I plan on being back here soon. The target date is July 1. I am sure there will be intermittent posts here and there that will serve as updates, but not much more than that until I get settled in to my new work in Clovis, NM.

In the meantime, I welcome your prayers.

Doug

Mishaps

June 11, 2009 in Christian Life with 3 Comments

Why do rational people do irrational things? It’s a great question that’s been asked and asked and asked over and over and over.

A while back, while waiting for a vehicle to be serviced, I read an article in National Geographic Adventure that essentially posed this question. The author, Laurence Gonzales, told a story about Lynn Hill, the renowned rock-climber and “winner of more than 30 international rock-climbing titles”, who nearly died due to an unfortunate mishap. The climb itself wasn’t the concern, but rather it was her preparation for the climb. While running a rope through her harness, she got distracted and began tying her shoes instead of finishing tying the knot into her harness. Hill sensed that something didn’t seem right, but dismissed it and commenced with the climb. The distraction was near fatal. With relative ease Hill climbed the face, but “when she leaned back to rappel to the ground, she fell 72 feet (22 meters), her life narrowly saved by tree branches.” She never finished tying the knot to her harness.

Gonzales offers an interesting insight into mishap,

In her case, more training would not have helped. In fact, experience contributed to her accident. She had created a very efficient model for tying her rope to her harness. She could do it without thinking. So the act of tying her shoes may have been similar enough to tying her rope that it allowed her to reach the unconscious conclusion that her rope was tied, even while leaving a slight residue of doubt.

It’s fairly easy to take things for granted, especially when those things are neatly placed within the confines of one’s basic routine. But taking things for granted can get us hurt, or as in the case of Lynn Hill, nearly killed. The issue wasn’t knowledge, but instead it was poor execution. She’d become slightly desensitized in her routine and it almost killed her.

Letting the guard down has its distinct advantages and disadvantages. Things becoming “automatic” can be good, but when we become “automatons” danger lurks. Maybe this is why Peter contends, “Discipline yourselves, keep alert” (1 Peter 5:8)? We are being stalked by an adversary who wants to take us down (v. 9), and distraction or desensitization can be spiritual fatal.

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