Deeper Connection

Sorry to miss a few days as I have been traveling, and not always able to blog.

Today I want to focus on communication. Our world is full of people talking, making noise and thinking that they are communicating. In reality most of the time we are simply making noise. Communication is about more than a transfer of words and sounds. Communication is going past the levels of superficiality into deep relationship. Therefore it involves three things which can be in short order, time, effort and energy. Yet we long for a connection with other people where we are doing more than simply sharing words and sounds.

How do we get passed the surface?
I think the first step is one of the more difficult steps. We must become vulnerable. Many are the reasons for us to have a good defense system. Many are the opportunities we have had to be hurt and wounded by risking connection. There are people in our world who are looking to cause harm to people through connection. Still, if we are going to develop deep relationships with people we need to finds ways to connect through communication. This will involve risk. We will have to let down our guard and trust. I am not sure we should do this with everyone, but I am sure that if we do it with no one, we will never find the connections we are longing for.

How do I sustain connection?
Now here comes an answer that could be seen as a typical pastor answer. Our key to sustaining relationships and connection is to remain connected to God. God is the one who authors all relationships. God is the one who created humanity for the sole purpose of relationship. God knows what it takes to be in relationship and knows how to be vulnerable. Many would do well to review John 15 at this point, but there is a passage in Exodus which speaks more to me. In Exodus 34, God reminds us the He is passionate about a relationship with us. That passion is what we need to tap into for the power to sustain connection.