Why Can't We Be Friends?

For some of us, worshipping God once felt like a wide open land in which we were free to run, love him, and serve others. But now, that freedom is gone. Now, God feels like a military inspector who, at any moment, could throw open your door and surprise you with a room inspection - ready to penalize you for not having your bed made, your uniforms cleaned, or not following the rules. And so we retreat even more into rules. Before you know it, our list of rules becomes pretty long and our fences become pretty high. We forget what worship in that wide open looked like, because all we know about worship are our fences. Worshipping God once was about loving him and serving others. Now, it feels like nothing more than following rules. In this rigid, legalistic, fenced in way of living, we feel trapped and isolated. We begin to believe our only purpose is to DO all the right THINGS. And I believe God is heartbroken because of it.

Why Can't We Be Friends?

One thing could permanently handicap or even irrevocably split any church, any office, any school, any family, or any relationship, really, in a matter of months should we let it go unchecked. It’s really the only thing that has ever kept me up all through the night. And it’s the same thing that nearly destroyed Israel. It’s the same thing that causes relationships to rupture and churches to split. And that one thing has a name: Triangulation.

2 Samuel 6.12-23 Words have power; they can breathe life into us, but they can suck the life out of us too. Speech is spiritual. I think it’s interesting that in the end, God didn’t save us just by thinking about it - he saved us through his Word, Jesus Christ: the Word that became a human being. The Word who just before he was betrayed gave thanks, who just before he was abandoned by them, reminded his disciples that they were his friends. The Word who in the face of injustice spoke words of reconciliation, who even as he was being falsely accused stayed silent. The words he spoke were of salvation, even for the people who had put him down, even for the people who wronged him, even for you and for me.

Why Can't We Be Friends?

Luke 8:43-48 Often times we label and stereotype based on race, upbringing, background, or finances. We stereotype and label based on parenting choices, spending habits, living room layout, or sexual orientation. Name the category, and it’s likely that we have some sort of stereotype associated with it. But Jesus invites us to see things His way in our relationships: to lay down our tendency to apply labels on others and to choose a better way. A way that is not characterized by categories, but a way that reflects his love for the world.

Why Can't We Be Friends?

What happens when our expectations for others go unfulfilled? How does this affect our outlook on our relationships, our dreams, our hopes, and our aspirations? And what in the world do we do with the ensuing disappointment? Because, more often than not, our expectations are often the driving force that moves us from freedom to captivity, from prioritizing our love for God and our neighbors towards an imprisonment to our own desires, fears, and anxieties. We become so bound by expectations that we're unable to hear the truth Jesus offers us: there is another way, a better way… a way rooted in sitting before the Savior who fulfills all our desires, hopes, and aspirations.

Why Can't We Be Friends?