Relationship

Relationships require work.

Intimate, deep relationships don't develop overnight. They are forged through time and  fires of adversity.

When a relationship is a priority, it won't always be convenient and will take precedent over other important things.

When a true friend calls, I don't let it go to voicemail. I pick up the phone. I listen. I share.

When there is a need, plans aren't just discussed. Obligations and responsibilities are rearranged and postponed. My agenda takes a backseat and my focus is purposefully realigned.

God has blessed me with friends, true friends with whom I have this kind of bond - where time and distance do not diminish our true sisterhood because we still periodically stop and reconnect.

Recently, the Holy Spirit prompted me to reconnect with another relationship that in my "busy-ness" I had not even realized that I had neglected.

Since I was a teen, I would proudly state that my faith wasn't a religion, that I had a "relationship" with my God. But lately, my relationship with Him had become pretty one-sided.

I was using Him. I would squeeze in a few moments here and there for a quick look-see in His word and I would check off my worship attendance, trying to convince myself that I had spent time with Him. I tacked Him onto my routines and schedule, but I rarely made true time for Him. And, if He was trying to speak into my life, I was too busy with my own agenda that I could not hear Him.

If I treated any of my relationships, including the one with my husband, the way I was treating my relationship with God, I would be pretty lonely and my marriage would be in deep trouble. I would never dare be so self-centered to expect any of them to only respond when it "worked" for me.

Yet, a true relationship with God is an amazing and unique thing. In addition to Him being Creator and King of kings, He is intimately involved in the details of my life. While I was still a sinner and knowing how I would neglect our relationship, He still DIED on my behalf.

Yet, here I was trying to regulate Him to my timeframe and my prefered means of communication. Ouch.

So this summer, when, by His graciousness, the "busy-ness" has subsided, He has gently reminded me that this sanctification process is accomplished through a two-way relationship. No, I haven't upheld my end of successful relationship, but He hasn't neglected His. (I can relate to those rebellious Israelites all too well.)

He is wanting to connect with me on a deeper level. He is communicating old truths in new ways. He is calling me to pursue Him as priority, not a part, of my daily living- coming and going, inhaling and exhaling.

Please don't  think I've got this all figured out. I don't. For the first time in a long time, I am seeing Him with fresh eyes. He has humbled me, but He has not broken me. I am thankful for both.

My relationship with Him looks and feels different than it ever has before. It's a little scary and even overwhelming, but I trust Him, or at least I am trying to.

I cannot continue to approach my relationship with Christ with anything less than I would any other significant relationship in my life.