Relational Responsibilities

God has been showing up in some funny places in my life these days. I know God is always there theologically, but sometimes you catch a glimpse of him when you don’t really expect it. It is in those moments that we become fully alive to what God wants to do in us. It is in those moments caught unaware that we see pure love, genuine acceptance, and intimacy of the Divine.

It seems that those moments most often happen in the context of relationships with others. It makes sense that relationships become revealers of God sense God is so relational. When my kids and I share a laugh, I see how God could laugh along with me at the craziness of life sometimes. When bridges are built in relationships, I am reminded that any reaching out on my part is a response to God reaching out to me. When hurt or pain comes into relationships, I am reminded that sin is painful not only to us, but to God.

God has shown me three things that I must be doing to see him more clearly in my relationships:

· Be humble. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. This is a very hard task for a prideful, sin filled man. Seeing my life in the context of Jesus should naturally make us humble. That humility should be infections to the relationships around us.
· Be forgiving. If God can forgive us, who are we to hold grudges? This is much easier said than done. I have a lot of grudges. I have been beaten up and chewed up a ton. But I am working on it.
· Be loving. It is easy to love when we feel loved. It is even easy to feel loved when we simply feel aroused. But it is difficult to feel loving when we feel wronged. God tells us to love anyway. For insight on how I am doing I this area, see “Be forgiving.”

Jesus is best revealed and understood in the context of relationships. Without the outflow of Jesus from our lives into the lives of others we simply become stagnant cisterns. That was never God’s plan. This week, be humble, be forgiving and be loving and see what God has in store for you.