"I hate customers more than anything..."

Realtionships… half of you just cringed after reading the word.  Memories, images of past relationships flashed before your eyes and you can’t believe you ever knew that person.  For the other half that same word does not bring to mind past failures but present triumphs.  The word relationship fills you with warmth that suddenly overflows bursting forth in a huge smile.  If you are reading this around other people they may ask you why you are grinning like an idiot.  Our view of relationships is shaped by the ones we have and the ones we have lost.  Some people leave our lives new and improved, better for having known them.  Others leave us battered and torn; a wake of destruction marking where they have been.  Scarred, we run from the next relationship that comes our way, only to be ensnared by the promise of something new, something better than the last time.  Try as we might, relationships are unavoidable.  You see, we are wired for them.  We are made that way.  We seek relationships because we don’t feel “right” without them.
 
Most of us have heard this before.  We are created for relationships because we were created by a God who Himself craves relationship; the same God who is inherently relational in His very essence.  The mystery of the Trinity is far too complex to even scratch the surface of in this blog, so let us just accept that God exists in eternal relationship with Himself.  Having accepted that (you accepted that right? Good, keep reading) we might ask, what does this mean for us?  Having been created in His image, we bear many of the traits that we have come to associate with God.  Many of us naturally have a sense of fairness, or justice.  We recognize right or wrong and even feel a sense of responsibility to protect the rights of others.  We are capable of incredible acts of selflessness and love.  Some (more than others) have an artistic side, a creative side that seeks to make the world we live in a more beautiful place.  All of us long to be connected to others.  For many of us that longing manifests itself in healthy ways.  We play organized sports, join various interest groups, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, the gym.  All so that we can see and interact with other people.  As you read this you have already engaged in one of the many ways we seek to connect with others, social media.  I posted a link on Facebook, you clicked the link and here we are, in relationship.  All of these forms of relating have various levels of intimacy attached to them.  Eating in public, working out at gym, going to the mall; all of these are at best surface level relationships or interactions.  Playing a team sport, joining a social club, “friending” someone on Facebook, these have the potential to go beyond the surface.  The people we work, have a class, or go to church with tend to share a deeper level of connection with us, but often times we are guarded with even these relationships.  Ideally it is our families and loved ones that we have formed the most secure, intimate bonds with, but sadly that isn’t always true either.  But, why?  Why do some of us seek destructive relationships?

In my very first Systematic Theology class we read "Created for Community" by Stanley Grenz.  The book can be pretty much summed in in one word, "community".  Everything relates to community.  It became a running joke during the course of the semester.  If you didn't know the answer just write "community".  It wasn't until grad school that I began to realize that Grenz really wasn't that far off in his book.  The Christian faith, living a Godly life, all comes down to community and relationships.  The Bible is the story of how God relates to humanity.  Theology basically boils down to how we interpret our relationship with God and vice versa.  It's our way of trying to figure out what we are meant to do in life, what we are meant for, purposed, destined.  Theology defines us and dictates how we respond to certain situations in life.  The Bible is our source for the Theology we develop amd the worldview that stems from our Theology.  Our Bible in a Year plan has us smack dab in the middle of Leviticus... yaaaayyyy... Leviticus.  On the surface Leviticus appears to be nothing more than a lot, A LOT, of boring rules and regulations meant to limit the people of God.  However, if we change our perspective we can begin to see them as laws of love.  Laws designed to protect the Israelites from themselves and preserve their standing, their relationship, with God.  God wants to remain in relationship with His people, with us.  Sin separates us from Him and in the case of Israel sin meant death.  God wasn't trying to "spoil the party", God was trying to save His people from doing what He already knew they would do.  These same laws also apply to our relationships with other human beings.  Just as with God, we can choose to do the right thing in our daily interactions with others, or we can choose to be the lesser version of ourselves.  The barista having a tough day... do we get snarky and pull an attitude? or do we try to see things from their point of view?  The postal worker who has had rude customer after rude customer (hey it's Christmas...) can we turn their day around with a smile and a kind word? or remind them how terrible the service is and that we had to wait 30 minutes in line?  Our actions can build healthy relationships or tear them down.  

Which will you choose today?  Will you choose to dwell on past failures or negative interactions, or will you rise above them and be a light to others?  Have feelings of guilt convinced you that you aren't worthy of positive relationships?  Maybe, just maybe, today you will remember that the God of the universe loves you.  Became just like you to show you how to live, how to have relationships and exist in community with others.  The God who died to take away the sin that seperates us from Him and give us an opportunity to have the most amazing relationship we could even imagine. Hopefully, you will choose to show love to the angry driver behind you, the rude server at lunch, the stubborn co-worker, your friends and your family no matter how frustrated they make you.