Unity In Diversity: Beings In Relationship

What is man? Is man a dream in the eye of his creator? It would seem so, by the Christian worldview. What is man for? How can man find fulfillment in life?

Human kind, one by one may find ultimate fulfillment in relationship. I have learned slowly but surely, that I am a being made for community and relationship.

First and foremost I am made for deep connection and relationship to God the creator. Yet I am also made for relationship with a female whom I will one day call wife. In addition, I am made for relationship with other believers. And also with my own children (someday), and extended family. And at the fringe, I am made for relationship with all people, with animals, and the natural environment around me.

Every human is born with the most important relationship broken. The relationship with God is not present upon birth. In fact God is not immediately approachable. One must approach God through Christ. Outside of Christ, no approach to God can be made. Upon the reception of Jesus Christ, the way is open to approach God. The Holy Spirit distributes a connective force between God and the believer, through the imputed righteousness of Christ. Very literally, the believer and follower of Jesus Christ wears the perfection of his life, death, and resurrection as a garment of borrowed holiness.

Meanwhile the Holy Spirit works on the heart and mind of the believer, gently and sometimes firmly the believer is molded into the likeness of Christ, in personality. This does not mean that every believer is forced into a carbon copy of Jesus Christ, but that every believer is molded with deep attention to their uniqueness and passions toward a perfection of character. The believer is molded into who they truly are underneath all the sin, darkness, pain, and confusion caused by this world.

In example, a believer may be womanizer, a fan of music, prideful, deceitful, inquisitive, a talented painter, and proficient at science. The Holy Spirit would not transform this person into a Jewish carpenter with healing powers and oratory skills. Instead the Holy Spirit might turn the pridefulness into humility. The talent for womanizing would be crafted into a talent for meeting the needs of his wife and family. The love for music would not be snuffed out but developed and shaped into perhaps a study of an instrument, or a more profound and complex appreciation for the listening experience. The Holy Spirit might craft the deceitfulness into a cunning zeal for the works of righteousness or serving the poor. The Holy Spirit might also develop the artistic talents of the individual inspiring them and leading them to produce great works of art. Given the love for science, the individual might be lead by the Spirit into an organization like NASA or the Human Genome project where those skills could be pushed to the max, and stressed to produce still higher levels of scientific skill and creativity. The believer does not consign to being forced into the mold of a Galilean peasant, but instead the Holy Spirit maximizes the talents, and transforms and adapts the ugly traits into useful skills.

This process is never completed in life. We seem to have to learn the same lessons over and over in life. Thus, when I am in community with others, I am often hurt and I often hurt others. That is the difficult part of being a being made for community and relationship. Relationships are often painful. Of course they are often wonderful and blessed.

I find myself sometimes in daily life slumping back in my chair, realizing that I am finding whatever I happen to be doing at the time wildly unfulfilling. A sort of angst flashes over my being, jumps about neocortex. I feel the pain of it. I feel my own despair and apprehension. My own fear of the unknown. I am made for relationship to God, above all else.

If Jesus Christ connects God and myself, which I believe he does, then the Holy Spirit provides the conduit between us. A prime ingredient that passes within those conduits must then be love. The Bible says that God is love. Love, healing, light, truth. Conviction, and the romancing of my soul. I do go off in my own directions sometimes. And at times I am fearful to come before the architect of reality. Given the implications, the logical outworking of my beliefs, it is progressively more and more stunning to realize just who I'm coming before. Indeed if I were to fully realize just who I'm coming before, I would probably find myself frozen with awe, terror, and unspeakable love.

I did not recognize the beauty of the cross when I first called upon Jesus Christ in the midst of my disaster. I didn't understand it. It's only now that I've begun to fully recognize the beauty of the cross. In Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis we see that God of himself could not identify with or reach out to man in his present state. God had to become a man, Christ Jesus, and live the life in the flesh day by day, just as we do, and thus he could then step one foot into the water, one foot on shore, and toss a rescue to us. He tossed the life preserver, the gift of restored relationship. He offers an emergency transport to return us to right relationship.