Your Relationships May Be the Key to Everything

Christians should be the absolute best people at relationships. There should be no doubt about it, no ability to argue, no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.

But…

From where I see it, we don’t live much differently than anyone else regarding relationships. We pretty much go by how we feel. We build boundaries against those that hurt us, cut out those that disappoint us, and talk badly about anyone we have opinions about. (Whoops.)

Do you agree? Or no?

This past week, on the podcast, I shared the third thing we need to do to take The Adventure God has for us! (If you want to read the first two steps click here and here.) And the third and final thing we need to do is master our relationships. We absolutely must master how to live connected with God’s people.

It is our privilege and duty to not only be the church but to build the church. This “church” isn’t something we attend; it is relationships we build. This should absolutely be one of our greatest calls on this Earth, yet many of us don’t understand how much we are really missing it.

Our people are everything.

In our lives, we should have 3 types of connections.

First, we should have close relationships. These are the people who know everything. These are the people who walk with us through our darkest days and cheer us on in our greatest victories. We should all have a few close relationships. As Woody says in Toy Story, “If you don’t have one, GET ONE!” (He was talking about a moving buddy, but applies to close relationships as well!)

Second, we should have communities that we live among. In our communities, we may have the goal to serve, to bless, or to simply ENJOY! There are even seasons when God calls us to communities where the goal is to learn to endure. Our communities might be a local Christian church group or a workplace that God has called us to. Or, for many of us, our family is a community that we live in. They are people that we might spend a lot of time with but don’t walk deeply with us.

Communities are vital to find the Adventure God has for us!

Lastly, the final type of relationships you SHOULD be having in your life are difficult ones! (Yes, you read that right!) Every single one of us should have people in our life that are difficult to live with. These relationships are a gift. They allow us to exercise our ability to give grace, our willingness to forgive, our capability to love. They give us the opportunity to use our voice and have difficult conversations when needed. These people are valuable and should never be viewed as worthless just because they are hard to live with.

You see, God knows us. He knows how easily we could live life alone, cutting out people who betray us, and building boundaries against those who disappoint us, which is why I am convinced Jesus spent so much time teaching us how to live amongst people who were difficult.

Each of us should have many relationships that don’t just last years, but endure and ultimately thrive through the decades.

I love Jesus and I love his teaching and how he lived his life, but it isn’t a very natural way of living. In fact, from my experience, it often feels a whole lot like pain. It feels like rejection. It feels like being misunderstood. It feels like losing.

Living the life that Christ taught isn’t easy, but I am convinced the relationship piece is not an option. It should not be an afterthought, and it should not be an oversight.

How we handle our relationships absolutely should set us apart from the world.

We are forgiving endlessly, not counting the wrongs of those in our life, and believing the best in those that we walk life with. (Gulp.)

This is hard, yes. But this is the life you are not only called to but designed for.

Want to go deeper? Listen here…