Relationships. Is there anything that causes more joy or more sorrow? Each of us has the power to encourage, enrich, and uplift just as profoundly as we discourage, devalue, and press down. Central to our feelings of worth, purpose, and security is the quality of our relationships. They shape us, ground us, and provide a sense of belonging and community.
But, as beneficial as they might be, relationships are difficult. Even in the most significant of relationships (i.e. marriage), intended to last a lifetime, we fail more than we succeed. So where do we go wrong, and why so fragile?
Never have I ever known a person who has lived more for others than my mom. It’s almost 60 years that my mom and dad have been married and for all those years she has given of herself to her marriage, her children, her church, and to the lives of others. She’s meek, small, quiet, always unassuming, and oozes faithfulness. Her life has been rich and her relationships deep because she has willingly and lovingly given of herself. She is loved, because she loves, and she has loved without condition.
A relationship is a mutual investment of two people. Relationships are not like mutual funds invested only when times are good and dispensed with when something more promising appears. For the Christian, relationships are not disposable. They may be difficult, they may at times be exhausting, they may feel like they are more effort than they deserve. But disposable? Cast off or thrown aside when we are satisfied they are of no further use? How contrary to the example of Christ who gave everything, invested His life, with no guarantee of how others might respond. He simple gave.
I am convinced, based on my own experience, that if we thought less of ourselves and more of others, if we invested in others despite our preferred return, if we gave of ourselves simply to express love—Christ-like love—our relationships and perhaps even the world around us would profoundly change.
Relationships will always cause us both joy and sorrow, but they are investments that will live on for eternity.
Just a thought
