Relationships are hard.
Yet, life revolves around relationships. The quality of our lives is often determined by the quality of our relationships.
How well do we get along with others–family, friends, strangers?
How well do we relate to God, or whatever we believe exists beyond ourselves?
As for me, I do believe in a one true God who created the universe for His pleasure, making mankind (those who bear His own image) the pinnacle of His creation. That God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth to be born of a virgin, and perform miracles while He taught a higher way of living. He was sent to His execution for the higher plan of God to take on the judgement of the world on the cross. Then, He was resurrected to overcome the punishment that was meant for all of earth, renewing and reconciling the world back to God through Himself.
My life, my being, is solidly founded on this one truth: I have a relationship with THE Being in the universe, accepting Him as my Father through the work that Jesus did on the cross and His subsequent resurrection from death. Nevertheless, sometimes, that relationship still gets strained. It gets confusing. At times, it hurts. At other times, I get so flaming angry at Him that I refuse to talk to the Holy and Perfect God who loves me… sometimes, for weeks. All the ups and downs that I have in relationships with people can be reflected in my relationship with even God… the God who loves me, and is perfect in every way.
The last relational question that I believe runs life is–How well do we get along with ourselves?
There is a scripture in the Bible, Matthew 22:37-39, that says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus gave two commandments, but within those two commandments I see three relationships: God, others, and self.
Why did Jesus say “as yourself”? What does my relationship with myself have to do with my ability to love my neighbor? What happens when I spend my life trying to give other people patience, grace, compassion, forgiveness, and understanding that I refuse to extend to myself?
As a Christian, I’ve spent most of my life assuming that loving myself was the least important part of that verse. Now I’m beginning to wonder whether I misunderstood it. According to Jesus, that last thing, love yourself, is a part of loving your “neighbor.”
In fact, I think He was revealing a universal truth there… it is impossible to love others when you don’t love yourself. Yet, so many of us try. We sacrifice for others without necessarily knowing how to love them (or ourselves) well.
These three relationships are the building blocks of life: How do we relate to God, how do we relate to ourselves, and how do we relate to others.
We all have different starting points, but we all can work on each aspect of these building blocks. Maybe someone needs to learn deeper truths about the character of God to fall more in love with Him? Maybe someone needs to better understand themselves so that they can fall more in love with themselves? Or, maybe someone needs a perspective shift so that they can fall more in love with the people they encounter in their lives?
How is that possible?
There is another scripture in the Bible in Romans 12… “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I believe that renewal is possible by learning from each other, the things that we have walked through, combined with the revelation of the Word. The Bible declares that in Revelation 12–“They triumphed over him (the Accuser of the Brethren…aka the Devil) by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.”
That is the reason for this blog… to provide a place to read experience, possibly receive a greater revelation, wrestle with ourselves, God, and scripture, and transform our lives.
I hope to be able to share my stories, provide opportunity to open minds through Biblical revelation, challenge assumptions that we have about God, ourselves, families, people…and possibly transform some part of people’s lives.
Full transparency… I write under a pseudonym. In a world of social media, I don’t want a spotlight on me. I want it on the word, and the work. I hope it will help me write more boldly, and with clarity.
I invite you on this journey as we discover greater love for God, ourselves, and others….renewing our faith and transforming our lives through stories, scripture, experience, and knowledge.
Leave a Reply