Consider your relationship with God


***image1***The question is innocent as it’s shared over a cup of coffee, "So, how’s your relationship with your spouse?" Or it might be directed toward your relation with your children, parents, co-workers, or boss. The question might catch us a little off-guard, but we usually answer.

We answer that question because the answer is easy. We’ll talk about our spouse’s annoying habits or bad decisions. We’ll share the frustration we feel over our kids’ schoolwork or our parents’ aging issues. We’ll complain about the people we work with. We’ll share that everything is great and we’ve never felt closer. We’ll admit that we’re fortunate to have such a happy family life. We’ll confess that we can’t imagine a better group of people to work with.

Sometimes, though, the conversation takes an unexpected turn. "So, how’s your relationship with God?" We stare back in disbelief. "Did you really ask me about my relationship with God? I’m not going to talk about that. That is too personal."

We don’t want to talk about that relationship. That relationship is different. We might respond, "I don’t talk about my relationship with God to my wife, to my children, to my parents, and definitely not to my co-workers. That relationship is between God and me, thank you very much."

Why do we think our relationship with God is different? For some reason, we have this idea that our relationship with God is somehow different than our other relationships. Our relationship with God is still a relationship. Hopefully the quality of that relationship is different than our other relationships, but when everything else is removed and we look at what it really is, we find ourselves trying our best to relate to the divine and the divine trying to relate to us. It’s a simple relationship. The relationship involves two parties working together to better understand and relate to each other.

Some days our relationship with God is great. We feel in synch with the divine and all is right with the world. Other days, we forget God. Forgetting God is something we all do. We might not want to admit it, but we forget God. We get caught up in the moment and do what we need to do to make it from one moment to the next and forget to put God at the center. We might think we put God in the middle, but we really just substitute a God-like imitation and call it holy.

Some days we also feel like God has forgotten us. We have been trudging along the whole time, going to church, reading, praying—whatever our routine is—and we can’t seem to locate God anywhere. God forgetting us is something we all feel. We want to think that we have such a close relationship with God that nothing will ever come between us. But, sometimes, we don’t feel God as close to us as we have in the past.

When we think about it, though, is that any different than our human relationships? Some days we are so in tuned with our spouse that we know exactly what he or she will do next. Some days we click so well with our best friend that we know the answer to the question that hasn’t been asked yet. Some days we look at our children and know what’s going on in their heads. Other days we look at our spouse, our friends, or our children and say, "Do I know you?"

Every relationship involves two parties working together to make it work. One person cannot put all the time, energy, and effort into it. Both parties must agree to work. In relationships, we too often forget what is important. When we forget, we hurt a good relationship. In our relationship with God, we think that all we have to do is say yes and the rest of the relationship will work out. It doesn’t work like that. Our relationship with God requires time, energy, and effort. Our relationship with God means not forgetting God while having faith that God will not forget us.


You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5


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