AUTHENTIC CONNECTIONS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

“In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.” - Brennan Manning

 

2017 has been a year of the deeply unexpected.

I have been so blessed to be a part of and share in so many amazing meetings and to have met so many incredible folks.  2018 looks like it will be even more of the same!

 

That continued to be true yesterday during a session with some folks from OCAAR (https://www.oca-ohio.org/) Ohio Citizens Advocates for Addiction Recovery.  We have intersected at events over the past 18 months or so and yesterday they were asking if I wanted to be a part of the BOARD for OCAAR; quite the honor. 

As a “citizen” and “advocate” for those in recovery, I think it will be a great way to serve in the upcoming year.

 

But it was what occurred after the “business” that intrigued me.

One of the OCAAR folks and I lingered at the lunch table for a much more important conversation.

 

She shared with me that she “really hadn’t done the church thing” for more than a decade but at the encouraging of a friend decided to go to a CHRISTMAS EVE service.  And while she found the service uplifting, she asked the question that SO MANY I work with ask, “what happens next”?

She observed a real flaw and blind-spot in most of our churches today.  We focus so much attention on the “service” and NOT ENOUGH attention on the relationships that could be fostered from it.

 

This young lady is astute.  She is deeply intelligent, well read and intensely discerning and in the matter of only 60 minutes unearthed what is MISSING in our churches; REAL connection.  In fact, we talked more globally about HER generation, the millennials and their decided NEED and DESIRE for connection. 

That is why she POSED the question, “How do I connect”?

 

She WANTS to connect.  She DESIRES to have MEANINGFUL, FRUITFUL, and HONEST relationships in her life and feels much like someone standing outside the department store window thinking they would like what is in there, but can’t seem to find the DOOR!

 

CHURCH, my friend is NOT an exception.  I encounter so many folks dealing with things like substance use disorder, gambling challenges, porn addictions, depression, the list goes on and on, who are WISHING the CHURCH would help them to meaningfully CONNECT.  Yet more times than not, our CHURCHES appear inaccessible to the hurting; inauthentic. 

For sadly many “church folks” would RATHER conceal their vulnerabilities rather than allow their journeys, their scars, and their lumps serve as barrier breakers and opportunities for shared empathy and connection. Remember what C.S. Lewis said,

“Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .” ― C.S. Lewis

 

Nouwen said it this way,

“Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

 

Yet far too often “the church (that is us)” does as Manning reveals, we CONCEAL our wounds behind masks and inauthenticity rather than allow them to be opportunities for illuminating the GOODNESS and FAITHFULNESS of our FATHER (Jehovah-Mephalti).

Remember:

God always comes alongside of us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside of those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort which God has poured out upon us. 

2 Corinthians 1:4 (The Passion Translation)

 

So, friends, as we approach the new year I am praying that our CHURCHES will begin to see the INCREDIBLE gift that is our STRUGGLE.  I am praying that WE will begin to see the VALUE of our hardships and challenges and the IMPORTANCE of making them accessible to a SEEKING WORLD!  And I am praying that WE and OUR GATHERINGS will become authentic, trustworthy, and safe places for the seeking to find MUCH needed CONNECTION!

 

 

I love you all!

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE