I am constantly reminded of how things were in the garden… quiet, restful, free. There are moments on earth that I am captured by this, but it’s not consistent. I have been talking to God lately about earthly relationships and how they seem to interrupt my quietness, my restfulness, my freedom. The interruption is no one’s fault but my own as it is my thoughts that cause the interruption.
In the garden, there was ONE relationship and now we seem to juggle multiple relationships whether they be deep, meaningful relationships or shallow, short-lived ones. When Adam & Eve decided to eat of the tree, they hid... they didn't want relationships with God because they were ashamed of who they had become. They began to cover themselves up and they lost their vulnerability, their trust of the One who created them.
A friend of mine said last night that she doesn’t want to live on her on anymore because it is in relationships that she has found freedom, wholeness, and healing. From my experience, relationships are the exact opposite. They provide an avenue for bondage, brokenness, hurt. I wanted to just throw in the towel many times and decide that loving others deeply is simply too painful… too much work… too much, period. THEN, I realized, that the essence… the beautifulness of the Christ Life is that we are given a wonderful opportunity to see others and ourselves as we TRULY are – on the Throne in Christ (Eph. 1:20, Col. 3:1). Oddly enough, relationships provide us a connection with the spiritual. Why? As we look from the throne, which is where we are seated in the spirit, we cannot help but see the only spiritual persons that carry CHRIST within them. We connect with one another because of the Christ that is living within us. Many will say, “Oh I have friends… I have people that I love.”, but until you have entered into fellowship, communion, the Christ love with the people you are taking the journey with, you will never taste the beauty of shared lives.
It takes courage to enter into such relationships because then we can’t hide, we can’t disregard others and live the way we want to live. It’s scary to be vulnerable and be who I completely am with someone who has the potential to stab me in the back, but here lies the beauty of the Christ life. When we live with others in shared life, there is nothing that can come in between us. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ that is within us. The strange step we have to take is to believe that Christ is truly within us and begin transitioning from looking in the natural to gazing in the spirit.
Don’t hide. It’s time to begin pouring out… a river of life.
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