It strikes me how quick I am to just replace things. Shoes, bags, furniture, cars. The ease with which we can shop for and acquire new things these days makes it all too easy to avoid putting much effort into the upkeep of anything. Out with the old--or slightly used--and in with the new! Sometimes it's a lack of know how on repair or maintenance. Sometimes I'm just plain lazy. But either way, there's a danger sometimes to looking to something new so fast, to taking the easy way out. Danger because this attitude can bleed into other areas of our lives...
Did you know that relationships are hard work? Like really hard work sometimes. Family, friends, co-workers, neighbors. Y'all, there are all sorts of opportunities for someone to get under your skin. And when you live in a city the size of Houston with a population of somewhere over 2.5 million people (y'all go home now....we full) wouldn't it just be easier to find someone else to talk to?
But that's not how it works. Scripture is full of references to the fellowship of believers, the image of all people working together to form one body. The idea that we belong to each other, and in that we've got to tend to our relationships with one another.
"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Romans 12:3-5
The foot cannot despise the hand and the body still make it. There has to peace. "Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). We have to invest, maintain, repair. Even when it is hard. Even when the world is saying it would be easier to walk away. It goes beyond just forgiveness. It speaks to God's design entire design for us, in community and in fellowship.
Are there relationships in your life need some maintenance? Repair? Complete restoration??
Father, we lift them up to you now. Help us to see others with the same eyes and the same heart as you do. When we are tempted to discard and walk away, give us the humility to turn instead to forgiveness. Restore our friendships, marriages, families, communities, that we might live into the truth you have designed for us....that we belong to each other. And, that in that, we would see you more clearly. Amen.
