Famine Relationships (Know People 2)

In my post from last Friday (“Know People”), I am not suggesting that everyone completely ignore our election and the people involved. I am saying that we have become captivated with macro people—those on a large platform at a far distance—that we can never actually know and the false relationships offered by them, while true relationships available all around us go wanting. We are starved of the benefits of genuine relationship and friendship, and I don’t believe we recognize our famine.

We have formed a preference, we like the presumed safety of talking about people we don’t know, world events and our opinions of them, rather than wade into the insecurity of genuine and caring relationships with people who are actually a part of our days. Commonly, even the friendships we have are stuffed full of discussing macro people of politics, music, sports, fashion and film and the opinions found there, rather than vital issues of the heart, including fears, loves, hopes, failures and successes, and how to navigate our days with Jesus.

Macro relationships avoid those things by offering us a television or computer screen at which to vent our opinions. Even though there will be no response, we think there’s value. We feel better, and we avoid messy, real people. As a consequence, we also avoid the Savior, who is best found and felt in the messy.

He is the way, the truth and the life, and we are distracted from Him by pretended surrogates, which, since they can never truly satisfy the heart of a human, twist us into caricature humans. There is no wonder why we act like idiots and asses—we are deluded away from Him who makes real people in real relationships.

My advice? Get off of the addiction to fake relationships. Don’t accept starvation. Start talking and listening to Jesus about everyone, everything and anything that concerns you, and watch what He will do with you on the inside and the outside. Don’t hurry. He will filter out the false and surrogate, and you will find a purity and authenticity to who you are and what you do with people. You’ll care for them. As you grow in knowing Him, He will share with you what He knows and feels about people—real people you can truly know. He will offer you to people because He is the Relationship King, and has a lot planned for them. Come on people—know people. That’s life. Have it to the full.