DISTANT SOCIETY- Your meant to share your life
We all have different personalities and some of us are more social than others, but the reality is each of us is meant to share our lives with others. We are not meant to do life alone. But how does one go about sharing their life with others?
A few posts ago we looked at the example of the Apostle Paul. He loved people so much that he was willing to sacrifice for them. It says that he labored day and night so that while visiting them, he would not be a burden to them. I feel a problem in our society is that we have become so self-absorbed and our expectation of others is so unrealistic, that we end up creating the distance between ourselves and others. Author and pastor Matt Carter speaks of how our garages and fences have made it almost impossible to get to know our neighbors. As the church, we drive 30 minutes to an hour to attend our favorite worship service, which makes it very hard to build relationships with those we attend church services with.
So, what does it look like to share your life with others? I believe we need to learn to be intentional with the relationships that are naturally happening in the places we live, learn, work and play. Paul developed a relationship with the Thessalonians and then he intentionally made time to spend with them. In Paul’s case he traveled to Thessalonica and stayed there for an extended period of time. While there, it sounds like he made good use of his time. Author Ronald Hock believes that while working, Paul was intentionally spending time with the Thessalonians in his work shop. It’s almost like Paul said, “hey this is something I have to do, I want to share my life with you, so please come join me while I work in my shop.” Many would say that this is true discipleship. Spending time showing others how to live in the midst of everyday activities.
As a man in the construction business, I am looking to spend more time getting to know the owners of the companies we subcontract work to. For me, this naturally makes sense. I or my team deal with these owners on a weekly basis. Why not take the extra step and try and meet with some of them once a month to get to know them at a personal level? Another avenue I want to pursue is some of the families who our kids play soccer with. Every weekend we spend time with them. Our kids love being together. It makes sense for us to look to deepen our friendships with those we are already spending so much time with.
So here is the question. Where are you naturally building relationship that you could be a little more intentional with? Is there an opportunity for you to invest into the relationships with your coworkers? How about your neighbors? Do you have kids? How about building deeper relationships with the parents of your kid’s friends at school? How about a family from the soccer team? Do you go to the gym? Maybe there is someone there who you can intentionally get to know in deeper ways. Invite them out for coffee or a meal? Have them bring their family over to your house on a Saturday night. What I am talking about takes risk. They might say no. You may have to give up a Saturday night or wake up early to meet someone for coffee. What I am talking about takes sacrifice, but I believe this is how we are meant to live. We are meant to share our lives with others. We are meant to learn to love others and the only way we do this is by intentionally spending time with them.
Taking it Deeper
