Scripture: Ephesians 5:15-20
Today I really got to thinking. This passage has usually been a temperance passage for me, but today not so much. It caused me to think of what is really important?
I was praying today before heading out to my job outside the church, and this passage really hit hard, asking me what is the most important things in my life? A wise person would focus on the most importat things and let the other things fall to the back of their minds, deal with them later. Making the most important aspects of life the highest priority.
The fools will focus on the things that do not really matter and then lose basically their entire life to the void of randomness. But what is the most important things in my life, or in the church?
It really makes me wonder if I’m stuck in some sort of vortex of foolishness, but then I stop and rethink. Relationships are the most important aspect of life. Hear me out. We spend our childhood playing, all the time we want our parents and friend to watch us. What does this mean? We want to be able to relate to others. A child will act out and continue to act according to the responses they receive, so they develope ways in which they can relate to others by either seeking greater learning, better pranks, or more trouble. So the wise would train their children in the way they should go by relating to them.
The next stage of life is that weird time where it isn’t the parent’s attention we want but the attention of the people we want to attract, for lack of any better term, sexually. How do we go about doing this? In a large part it reflects how we gained the attention of our parents, but of course we throw in a few twists of our own. Again the focus is on relationships.
Once we attract a “mate” we begin the cycle all over again. The problem is where is our standard on relationships? How do we build or encourage each other? As I reflect on the stories of God I find that God created humans as relational beings, however that creation happened scientifically. God said “let us create them in our image.” Our, us, them these are all relational words. God is relational. The image of god is relational as well.
The wise would not focus on things outside of building friendships and deepening relationships. As a church this should be our greatest goal, to deepen our relationship with God, and to encourage others to do the same. We can only do this if we ourselves are devoted to relationships and not our own selfish motives. But we also need to remember to be careful not to over extend ourselves as well. Our first priority is to train and encourage those closest to us. Then we can go out to others.
Time is short, not because the end is near but because relationships and friendships are sensitive. If we procrastinate on building relationships we will lose everything important to us. Our jobs, careers, money, and socalization methods are not the main point these are just tools used to help us build relationships so don’t be foolish clock out when you can and clock in to your family. Time is short. Our goal at the parties and weekend events should be on building friendships not to get drunk or to hook up. So drink less and talk more.
Most of all praise! If you do not take time to respect and live in awe of the God that created you and created the world and universe we live in, we miss out on something amazing. Engage in learning about the amazingness of the world around you how nature itself reflects the divine relational aspects of God. And remember that God did this for love, He came to us for love, died for us out of love, and rose to restore our hearts and lives to love Him and our communities. We cannot understand the true nature of our world, our families, or our friends without God. So spend time in praise and in prayer because time is short and our relationships need us to be wise.
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