After creating the entire world and calling everything in it good, God made man; gazing down at his perfect creation God the Father said, “it is not good that man should be alone”. I believe the lack of relationship God called aloneness as he watched Adam was not solely the expression of an intimate love relationship or physical fulfillment, but one of community. Considering that God was right there with Adam, I had to ask myself… Was Adam really alone?
Adam was God’s perfect creation and community was a part of Adam’s DNA, so God made provision through Eve and those that they would pro-create for Adam to engage in living as he created us to live! Eve was Adam’s perfect helper not because she was good around the house, or as Jerry McGuire put it “because she completed Him”… I believe the main aspect of her “helpmateness” (I just made that word up!) was how she provided for Adam the ability to live in community with God and others! Eve was the perfect other, and God made Adam for Himself and for OTHERS! Suffice to say relationships are at the heart of God the Father and the reason for creating you and me!
Which brings me to a sacred cow of western Christianity. Consider these questions we often ask people in the church; for me they have sparked a yearning to see the conversation among Jesus followers reformed and the questions we ask one another change!
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?
Have you spent your own personal quiet time with the Lord today?
A life lived in “personal relationship” to God simultaneously isolated from the world and those God has created in His image is to live life opposite of how God designed us to live. In other words if we view Jesus merely as our personal Lord and Savior, and ultimately our exit plan from this ball of dirt we call Earth when our time on it is complete… I believe we are missing out on a life lived here on the Earth that Jesus came to illuminate, a life lived to the fullest (John 10:10)
God’s desire is for us to live in community with Him and with others. We are created for community! I do understand that there are some aspects of the relationship we have with Jesus that are personal; but the relationship should never end there! Fire Insurance and joining the Blessme club is not the ultimate goal of Following Jesus… impacting the world with the grace and mercy of God, making Him famous, and making disciples is the true goal!
Our relationship with Jesus must begin as a decision nobody can make for us, but the effects and application of that relationship must be communal… change is realized and expressed in communal settings thus strengthened by a community of believers IN Christ.
We can not and should not do it alone. The sad truth is many people find themselves alone when they need people around the most, when they are most vulnerable. When Peter was alone he found himself denying the Christ, it was Paul who stated in Galatians…. That which I want to do I cannot, and that which I should not do I can’t stop (my paraphrase). Maybe it was Paul trying to operate in this can/can’t relationship alone and nobody to share his burdens with, leaving him vulnerable to temptations and the cares of the world.
Followers of Jesus without a community to share life with, and going at it alone was never the plan! When Jesus sent the disciples out they were commissioned as a community and sent out in two’s! Jesus himself spent the bulk of his time in the gospels with a community of people, sometimes the multitudes, other times the 12 disciples and sometimes with his 3 closest friends. While Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane he asked his closest friends to pay attention and pray, knowing that he was facing the most difficult time in his life. Three times he asked for them to wake up and pray, yet the friends continued to fail as a community and slept like babies as their friend and mentor suffered. Nobody should have to go through this life alone; if your alone your not around true followers of Jesus!
May you come to see that Jesus loves you and wants your heart fully devoted to his kingdom, but His plan and desire has always been for your personal relationship to have an impact on the community He has placed you in; The larger community of the Church, as well as the smaller communities of people you find yourself in. Loving God, Loving Others! I pray that we take some time to take the personal out of our relationship with God, and focus on our calling to making a difference in our communities!
