Day 10 of Lent - Redefine The Fight

Relationships are more than God’s original idea. Relationship is who the Living God is.

The Triune God said “Let Us make…” Everything we can see and understand in this known universe began in an atmosphere of unconditional love and community and cooperation and mutual respect.

Made in that image, we were created for the same.

We were created for friendship and acceptance in an atmosphere of transformational creative energy - where we help each other make and grow, not as a transaction, but as loving action. Because our deepest need is to care and be cared for, not to succeed.

I am learning how to love well, insisting that my closest relationships be spacious and sacred, not small cheap spaces where love is conditional, so long as you meet with my approval.

Friendship, ultimately, is the byproduct of experiencing and discovering parts of life together, with a shared ultimate objective, protected from shame and fear of rejection. It’s God’s design for a well-lived life.

If we struggle to do this with clean and clear hearts, then it’s a good struggle. That is a healthy struggle to be engaged, not avoided. The struggle to love well is what makes us aware of the preciousness of the “one anothering” to which we are called. It’s where we contest the lies of the enemy - and we affirm the truth of how we were made, and we were made for this life together. The labor of love must not be viewed as a bad thing between friends, but rather it must be seen as one of the rarest gifts in life.