Monday, November 9, 2009

As Deep Cries Out to Deep


Lately the Lord has just been pressing upon my heart this idea of deep crying out to deep. It started as I was listening to the song "Always" by Hillsong United; my heart was just so moved by the words of the song since that is exactly where I am at right now in my walk with the Lord ("Cause all you are is all I want always. Draw me close in your arms, O God, I wanna be with you."). Then I just started thinking (certainly had to be God, since I am not nearly that clever) about how as people we seek after depth, whether it be depth in friendships, romantic relationships, spirituality (in all sorts of forms), or something else.
Contrary to what pop culture tells us, humans are deep individuals who are not satisfied with what this world gives us because it is not enough. Are we selfish? Sure we are, but it goes beyond that. The reason we are not satisfied is because we so long for deeper meaning in life. God is such a big part of that deeper meaning that we need fulfilled, but relationships with other people are also a huge part of that. God meant for us to have fellowship with him AND each other! Let me say that again, God meant for us to have fellowship with him AND each other!!!
I know for myself I have always been under the impression that the only thing I need is Jesus and anytime I would get hurt by one of my friends it was no big deal because I didn't need them anyway. But that is so not what Jesus is about! He intended for us to have relationship with one another or he would never have given Eve to Adam in the very beginning of the world. The three of them had equal fellowship together. This is not to say that we do not need the Lord, because certainly we do. But what I am proposing is that it doesn't have to be an either or, it is both. One of my friends said one time (though he did steal it from one of his friends, so really I am quoting two people) that, "Some of the greatest things we learn about God we learn through the lives of the people around us." That is so true! We cannot have a healthy relationship with God unless we are in deep relationships with other people because we practice with them all of the things God is teaching us.
Something that is so sad to me is how our culture is obsessed with this idea of romance. All of the songs on the radio have to do with romantic ideas whether that be Taylor Swift's "Love Story" song, or "Whatcha Say" by Jason DeRulo. But if you think about it, dating relationships can be some of the deepest relationships we experience. It makes sense that people would want a part of that and would seek out others when those ones don't work out. But what if our other relationships were just as deep as those ones? What would happen? I wager to bet that our culture would become less enthralled with the idea of romantic love when all of our other relationships changed because we sought one another out and worked toward the goal of digging deeper.
I want to dig deeper in all of my relationships because I feel that's what God wants for all of us. We can do that by pursuing our friendships (and romantic relationships - please understand I am not trying to downplay that at all, because I think they are good and we learn a lot from them) instead of allowing ourselves to become apathetic about them. Choosing to do more than text or call, but writing letters just to write them or setting up regular "coffee dates" is a fantastic way to pursue those friendships. These are things I know I need to work on since I am not always the best at communication, but it's my lifetime goal to dig deep with you -the ones I call my friends.