Relationships
Funny how it is I (Melanie) not Steve entering this into our blog, as it is he (Steve) who has been pursuing these ideas for some length of time via the internet world . . . . anyway. I just read (quite accidentally) something Steve obviously read earlier this morning and I was struck enough by it that I wanted to share the link here to a blog entry called “Wide Open Spaces”. My guess is that it has something to do with Jim’s (the guy whose blog it is) new book by this title but having not read that or anything about that I don’t really know. Regardless of your thoughts about church as an institution (now there’s a Pandora’s Box . . . ), the church as described in the Bible is clearly about relationships, and I thought that Jim did a GREAT job here of stating it without throwing any babies out with the bath water or derision or criticism (I have heard a lot of that kind of attitude and it gets under my skin). I was very appreciative of that.
I ache to grow in my understanding of Jesus as one who longs to have and deepen his relationship with me. He chose me, he loves me, he cares for me and he is NOT letting me go. How comforting that is to me and how easily I forget and am distracted and how easily we (culturally) replace relationships with rituals, be it in families, schools or churches, with our traditions and habits and routines and good intentions. My thanks to Jim for his words as they encouraged me a LOT this morning, that church isn’t about all that debatedly good “stuff” but about people and it happens everywhere, not just where we think it “ought to.” May my box be shaken open wide as I learn to really relate to and connect with my Lord and my family and those around me.
