“What’s the point?” is a cry of frustration I often hear. “No matter how hard I work, I can’t pay all the bills – so what’s the point?” “She never responds when I try – so what’s the point?” “He never notices – so what’s the point?” I have a friend who is starting a new church called The Pointe so I bet he gets asked all the time “what’s the point?”
How would you answer that question? I mean what is the point?
I have been thinking about that a lot this week and its producing some interesting thoughts about relationships. I’m starting to think that the whole point of it all is community, not work, not success, not bigger faster more powerful but true authentic community. Most of our relationships in today’s culture never break past mere contact to make it into the transforming realm of true connection. I mean we come into contact with literally thousands of people each day, but what is it that moves a relationship to the intimate level of true connection where souls collide and who you are is ultimately affected.
I still have a lot of thinking to do on this, but I am becoming convinced that relationships are very important to God and that they just may in fact be a gift from Him designed to help us become the people He knows we can be. Maybe the point of relationships is not simply pleasure but ultimate perfection. Maybe God uses our relating with others, the good relationships and the bad to shape us.
Great to see you get going Jay. Keep it up!
Comment by Dennis — February 8, 2006 @ 11:43 am |
Looking forward to reading your blog, Jay.
Fantastic first entry. Keep blogging and the readers will come.
Comment by Rob Bushway — February 8, 2006 @ 4:14 pm |
Jay … you are right on brother. It is about community. I had a staff member who visited Kenya. She sat with Christians from the Maassi tribe. They raise cattle and wander around the savannah. They have no real concept of the individual. It is all about community. It is the exact opposite of our individualistic, American, pull- yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality. They pull each other’s boot straps up.
Well, my friend was asked to share her testimony. She talked about her conversion, her personal relationship with Christ, her bible study and quiet time. Her hosts sat quietly. Then she talked about getting involved for the first time in a church community. “Ah,” they said, “That’s when you became a Christian.”
We need a personal relationship with Christ. But we aren’t really a Christian outside of Christian community!
Comment by Michael Nyenhuis — February 9, 2006 @ 12:05 pm |