Trying to love
March 26, 2010
I live among an inspiring community of believers, but seldom do I realize it. Tonight I walked around the prayer room doing my personal devotion prayers, and I started thinking about the people who surround me every night. I thought, “Jesus really loves these people. He has a personal history and a deep affection for each person in here.”
Then I realized that in the Bible He calls us to tap into that same love. We are called not to be self-satisfying, but the greatest servants of all. I considered my dilemma: How do I love these people like You God? How do I get out of my little bubble? There is so much life going on around me, so many lives to influence and lead closer to Him.
This got me thinking about a quote I recently heard: “To have relationship with God, one must restrain from relationship with Man.”
There are three different reactions to this quote, and since I heard it, I’ve had them all. In summary, the answers are either, “True, False or both true and false.” Before reading on and hearing my reaction, I suggest stopping and considering your own response.
My first answer was, “It is both true and false. We need a balance of both, relationships with people and with God.” I can be non-committal with my first impressions, so this was an appropriate, balanced response for me.
My second reaction was, “Yes, the statement is true. We need to cultivate our relationship with God by showing restraint with our human relationships. It is so easy to be with people all day, yet never talk with God. Even when we are with churchy, spiritual people!” This response was based out of my own frustrations and lack of closeness with God. I am around people all the time, they are easy to spend time with, they stand right there in front of me, my eyes see them, my ears hear them. It is an easy relation to have, as opposed to talking and listening to an unseen God who is hard to hear.
My final response, as I looked around the prayer room and realized how little I loved the people around me, brings me to my present response. The statement is false. Part of relationship with God is relationship with Man. Relationship with God isn’t a category which is distinct from every other aspect of our lives. Every single thing we do is connected to our relationship with God, that is, if we have Him living inside of us. If we love God, we cannot restrain from relating to people who He is constantly thinking about. Jesus often withdrew to desolate places to talk to His Father. Yet when He did so, He did not flick the switch over to “God time,” and then switch it back when interrupted by the crowds. Everything Jesus did was communion with the Father. In His time with people He was talking to God. And in His time with God, they were talking about people.
I would suggest this quote to someone who lives distant from God, dependent upon human relationships to make them feel okay about themselves. I would tell them that they need to trim down their 2000 facebook friendships, or in other words, “restrain from Man,” and focus on the one friend like no other. But to the lover of God, communing with Him on the inside, this quote doesn’t really apply. Love God, and love Man; both count eternally as relating to and loving God.
