Loving People Near and Far

I was listening to a talk from my church. It was talking about how the health of our relationships with people is reflective or our relationship with God. Makes sense.

Also, they talked about how people in America are so geographically far apart from each other. How you get in your car to drive to work, then drive home, drive to the store, to the other side of town to see a friend, and then somewhere else. There was a statistic that people spend an average of an hour and a half in their car each day. That's a lot!

What are ways nowadays to build real relationship? With so many people being so mobile, people are living all over the place. Email becomes a good way to keep in touch, maybe a paper card (real mail!), calling works but you have to coordinate schedules. And there are so many people that you don't get to see nearly as often as you would like, people that you miss deeply. It is neat though that there is so much opportunity to meet and connect to people all over the place. There are relationships that are seasonal, there is depth and connection for a season of life. There are relationships that come and go, ones that you are close with for a while, then not for a bit and then are again later. And then there are the relationships that will always be close, even in seeing each other is not that frequent. The people that when you see them, instantly it is as if you have always been in the same room, like no time passed in between visits. I love those! That the connection that you have is there no matter if you haven't seen each other or spoken for a while.

Relationship and connection to other people is so important. So vital. It is simple and hard at the same time. Simple, just take time to love people, to hear them, to care, to laugh. Hard, cause there is vulnerability and busy lives, different priorities and interruptions. But oh so important and needed.....

I want to be able to walk to a friends house like I did in elementary school. When I was little your best friends we people that you could get yourself to. Maybe I should go wander around the neighborhood to make friends, get a sandwich sign, "wanna be my friend?"

I think the important part in any relationship, one with God or people, it just taking the time for it. Simple really.