Building Relationships

The vast majority of the time I enjoy writing these blog entries.

As it is a voluntary activity it is something I do as a labour of love.  There are times, however, when even the labour isn’t that onerous because of the delight I take in writing.  The last entry looking at observations on the road to unity, was a particular delight.

Getting to join a chain blog was a thrill and honour.  To give you some insight in the ‘making of the blog entry’, I had a structure for what I’d write about relational unity.  It was initially looking at four lessons in particular I learnt so far in the journey to unity – two negative and two positive.

I got so much into one of the positives that it completely took over the entry.  I might get round to the other lessons and blog about them.  What writing the entry did, however, as well as considering the other entries in the series, it got me thinking about relationships again.

As God is relational, it’s no surprise that He creates relational creatures capable of relating to Him and others in harmony and growing in maturity. The impetus of the gospel suggests we’ll be dealing with relationships of one sort or another.  The nature of church itself is dependent on solid, deep, outreaching relationships.

Today I was thinking about making friends. What it takes to make friends, how it happens, how it’s happened, and all that.  My story with my beloved wife is us starting off as good friends.  The best relationships are good friendships.  Based on quality time invested in sharing, growing in knowing and enduring and misunderstanding before reconciling.

Jesus Himself said of His disciples that He considered them to be His friends, which has got to be the compliment of all time.  He said that because He freely expressed and divulged what He was all about to them.

It’s no surprise that the quality of relationships often suffer in the mad scramble to juggle all the challenges thrown our way.  The church then should be the centre to combat those challenges, by being a place of friendships.  Deep and meaningful friendships, as I was hinting in the last entry, is a tremendous witness to others of God’s love for us, as well as a brilliant building block in our own maturing in Christ.

It’s great when those friendships help us to understand different perspectives, backgrounds, philosophies and views.  It’s great when those friendships offer us an opportunity to relax in being ourselves and that is all – no need for airs, graces, fronts – just yourself.

Something I’ll be considering is a series on relationships from a Christian perpective, the different levels of the relationship both in how we deal with each other and engage with others outside of the Church Family.

In the meantime, what do you think are obstacles to developing true and deep relationships among believers?

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden