It's All About the Relationships

I turned 45 last December. That is kinda like a milestone year for me, as I feel that I have officially hit the half-way mark now. One of the things that does happen as you get past 40 is that you begin to weigh a lot of the things that you are doing as to how they will impact the world around you, and if they actually even are impacting the world around you.

The one thing that I have determined is the most important thing, and forgive me if you already knew this - I'm a slow learner sometimes, is that relationships are king. They are actually the only real thing that matters in this life. If you subscribe to the thought that I do that you are a spirit, you have a soul (mind, will & intellect) and you live in a body. And that we are created in the image of our Father Abba God, then you know that your spirit (the real part of you)will live forever.

Now phones will change, hair do's will change, life in general will change, and none of those things can or will be taken with you when you go the way of the grave, or if we are fortunate enough to live to see the return of Jesus, either way the only thing of substance that we will be able to take with us will be those relationships with others that we have made.

I was thinking about the books & movie "The Lord of the Rings". In that story, it comes to Frodo to take the one ring to Mount Doom and destroy it. He has seveal companions that help him to accomplish that. There were nine in that little ragtag band of companions, yet each important to the story. Now I've gotta tell you, in the natural I don't think Frodo would have actually chosen those that went with him.

Oh he would have taken Gandalf and Aragorn, but the others think of it. A quarrelsome dwarf and an elf of the woodland realm who didn't like each other. (An interesting side note, it was Legolas's father who had imprisoned Gimli's father in the story "The Hobbit", so there was great animosity between the two of them). And who can forget Boromir, the human who had said that what Frodo was to do was folly.

The point I'm making is that in that story fate chose Frodo's companions. In our lives we don't always get to choose who the companions we walk with may be. Our band may not look perfect, there will probably be several knotheads in the group. You may even be one of them. So if relationships are important, and they are, then we need to cultivate relationships wherever they come from, and not wait until we find that "perfect" companion for our journey.

So the next time you are somewhere meeting people for the first time, and there is someone there that just rubs you the wrong way, go up and introduce yourself, you never know, it may be that one person who ends up being just the kind of person God is sending your way to knock off a few of your rough edges, and you may be knocking off a few of theirs....

Strength and honor