This week's focus for 40 Days of Community is "What Builds Relationships and What Destroys Them."  We all know we must work to build relationships and that without work every relationship decays and may even be destroyed.  I say we all know that, and yet Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the purveyors of modern culture have fed us the lie that great relationships occur naturally.  We "fall" in love (and we all know how natural and easy it is to fall!)  If a relationship takes too much work, it means we've "fallen" for the wrong person.  That particular lie has destroyed people's relationships with God, with spouses, with friends and even acquaintances.  The truth is "Christ makes us one body and individuals who are connected to each other."  Romans 12:5 (GW)

Jesus "makes us one body," and "INDIVIDUALS who are CONNECTED to each other." (Emphasis added.)  We start out in life as disconnected individuals.  Connecting us to one another is a supernatural reality.  By nature we don't want to be connected, because connection means trusting, loving, forgiving, and so many other difficult processes.  To BUILD relationships requires work.  Whether the relationships are biological family relationships, marriage relationships, church relationships, working relationships or any other kind of relationships, the very act of coming together requires effort.  While we may, indeed, "fall" in love with a person, or even a group of people, that is primarily an emotional state that must be supported with intentional effort in order for the relationships to grow.

In the local church, for example, each person who makes up "the body" to use the Apostle Paul's analogy from Romans 12:5 must submit his or her personal desires to the greater mission, vision and values of the congregation.  God gives each congregation a unique "SHAPE (Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences) just as He gives each person a unique SHAPE.  When we come together our individual SHAPES cause us to  attract and repel one another.  The key to staying "connected" to each other is the Holy Spirit's work in each of our lives, AND our effort to stay focused on the body's mission, vision and values instead of our personal desires.

As we go  about this week, we're going to focus on the specific realities that work to destroy our oneness, our connection to each other, and those which draw us together and build us into that body of Jesus Christ, which He seeks to make us.  Right now, pause for a moment and consider what specific SHAPE God has given you.  What specific spiritual gift(s) do you have?  What motivates you­-- what is your heart or passion? What special abilities do you have-- what natural skills and aptitudes?  What makes your personality unique?  What experiences have you known that help you to relate more effectively to others, or make it harder for you to relate with others?  All these realities have "SHAPEd" you into a unique person, who has so much to add to the "body" of Jesus Christ.  Putting all our shapes together takes effort, energy, and a large input from the Holy Spirit.  Relationships DO NOT just happen.  They require greater effort than anything in our lives to build and grow---but the effort is more than worth it, since it is God's plan and desire for our lives.  As we live and grow together as the body of Jesus Christ, others see us becoming more and more like Jesus, and they want to become part of the body as well.  The more people who become part of the body, the more individuals who are connectinge HHHH to each other, the greater the challenge AND the greater blessing we can be to one another and the community around us.  So, let's get ready for a great week of considering together what it takes to build relationships in the body of Jesus Christ, and how we can overcome the forces that would destroy them!

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, Thank You for creating us for relationships, and for making it possible for us to live and grow together as one body in Jesus' name!  Fill us with Your Holy Spirit so we may live out our unique SHAPEs among one another, and show those around us the amazing results when we work together with You to build and grow that body, Your church!  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.