What would it look like for you to go deeper in your relationships?
As a pastor, I hear that question relating to small groups, but I think we sense this for each significant person in our lives. We desire to be known and to know others. Depth in relationships invites us to authenticity with each other.
Experiencing deeper relationships has a problem. Most often, the path seems messy and complicated. We will have to acknowledge the truth about ourselves — the good, bad, and the ugly. Honestly, we do not always see ourselves clearly, and that causes us not to others clearly.
James Bryan Smith says this in Embracing God’s Love:
The gospel is good news to the broken and contrite, to the sick who are in need of a physician. We lack community in many churches precisely because we have been ashamed to admit that we are sick. Admitting the truth of who we really are is the first step to building real community.
Throughout the Bible, the writers of scriptures point to freedom and depth in relationships with God and others starting here — admitting our own need for the Gospel because of our brokenness and weakness.
Jesus corrects the religious leaders in Matthew 9:9-13 because the people Jesus spent his time understood their need for him. Later, in 1 John 1:5-10, the writer of this book and a disciple of Jesus, describes this same point as walking in the light and truth of the Gospel. Ultimately, you come to recognize the Good News of the Gospel in the story of the Bible for broken and sick people and not people who have it all together.
Deeper relationships result from us personally reminding ourselves of the Gospel and then sharing it with others. When we can confess our sins, admit our weaknesses, and live without pretense, we allow people to see Jesus at work in us and invite them to do the same.
So, what would it look like for you to go deeper in your relationships? It starts with Jesus’ work in us and moves us to share the Gospel in word and deed with the people around us.
Photo by Charles Etoroma