Life at the Speed of Relationships (#700)
Welcome to God Journey podcast #700! Who would have thought and Wayne gets to celebrate with his daughter, Julie, as they talk about one of the core realities of moving from religious life to one of growing freedom in God's love. As the world presses us in its mold, it seeks to drive our lives with the responsibilities of survival and the tyranny of achievement. Those will always drive us toward a fruitless and empty life. Wayne picked up a phrase last week in Virginia about life moving at the speed of relationships, which is also how the kingdom of God grows.
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I really appreciate what Julie said about learning to be thankful for the moments she has with friends…even if they don’t or can’t return the calls, invites, text msgs. Learning how to speak into a friend’s life without expecting anything in return…that’s a gift we give others.
Hi Wayne….just listened to this AFTER I sent that e-mail! LOVE it, LOVE it, LOVE it! Thank God for relationships Even the ones that are not so true! We can love them too. Like Jesus says…even the pagans love those who love them. But love you enemies too. He does! You never know when it might make a difference.
Thank you Julie, thank you dear Wayne! Having friends is having a great treasure. What Silvia and I value most is being intentional and vulnerable. What we experience most is that most of our friends are “surfing” on the topics we want to comment on. Thank you for reminding us that we do not have to go with high expectations, otherwise our frustration will be great and our circle of friends much smaller.
With love!
Pablo & Silvia from Barcelona, Spain
(From Wayne). Love that, Pablo, expectations destroy friendships, because we are trying to find our worth in someone else’s responses to us, and that almost always ends in disaster, and like you said a much smaller world. It is good to hear from you again. I loved being in Barcelona with you and your friends a few years ago. Much blessings on you all.
Love this podcast! I’ve been able to experience the joy of relationships mucho outside the institution last handful of years now…some of my friends in the institution are trying year after year to find community and other friends outside the institution are trying to figure out what church should look like year after year:) when it’s simple to just be:)…be the body and take Wayne’s advice to love the next person in front of you and it’s freaking awesome! I could not have had more of a wide range of friends from different beliefs politically, spiritually, economically, etc. I have done a lot of initiating such as when we moved to a new town we held neighborhood parties and those that came absolutely loved it and has birthed wonderful wonderful relationships right next door to us!!! I have found two close friends that were seemingly highly unlikely to be close friends…they are different denominations that my evangelical teachings would say are not saved lol so actually when I first met them I was praying like crazy at night for them to be saved lol then they texted me during my prayer their own prayers for me lol….God showing me He’s got them they are His, He loves them and actually they were in my life for me to be blessed with friendship too!!! When we love the next person in front of us and we pause like Julie said to see if God puts someone on our heart that day or follow Gods leading in who to bless that day it’s an incredible journey!!! And agree no expectations makes it enjoyable….just go with the flow along with being intentional…like neighbor parties or hosting or inviting someone to the park or beach:)! When I left the institution and was being heavily judged by my “friends” inside I followed His leading to invite the one African American gal in our small Midwest rural dominantly caucasian town to the beach at the lake near by. We are still connected today even though I moved from that area three years ago. She is single mom of 5 whose kids my kids played with (that’s how we met) and learned she fled inner city Chicago and all her family are either dead or in jail expect for her mom. She s trying to make better life for her kids. Well the people in the institution saw I had a relationship with her and wanted “in” as they have been trying to evangelize the families at the low income apartments and haven’t had an “in” they asked me to start a bible study there and help them teach the kids at those apartments manners…well number 1 my kids misbehaved in more ways or just same as the kids they thought behaved so bad;) and number 2 I felt teaching a bible study there would really make my friendship weird as if I was only being a friend because I thought they needed Jesus…and actually getting to know her…she already knows Jesus ha ha! Not being boxed into a program trying to reach people but simply loving the next person in front of you is freeing and super delightful! I think people might be so busy with their programs and bible studies and books on how church should be instead of just inviting people over to get to know them and enjoy their company:)…no hidden agenda:)…yes of course I want everyone I know Jesus but if I enter a relationship knowing Father God already loves this person in front of me and I just get to be a blessing to this person as His vessel on this “God journey”:)and be blessed by what is created by God in this person for me then there are no expectations to get let down from just simply enjoying the adventure God has for us in Him! Wahoo!!!
My daughters and myself talk often about how we are so overwhelmed with the blessings of all these beautiful people in our lives! Another lady, only 60 years old we met by doing meals on wheels…she cannot use her legs and is basically bedridden and cannot afford nursing home care…she had said how she doesn’t get many visitors so we said we would love to and there you go another super blessed relationship we get to play cards with her and we talk on the phone and make visits:) and it’s not because we have to…we LoVE being with her she’s in such good spirits often and funny and inspiring to us!
(From Wayne) Love. Love. Love this, Victoria. One of the best blogs ever, just getting a chance to see how you live this and what joy and fulfillment it brings. Thanks for sharing your journey with us It’s a great way to live. Interestingly enough, I saw a news story today that said most Americans have not made a new friend in the last five years. How sad is that? Simply living the way you express it above would be more than enough to reverse that trend. Thanks for posting.
Julie, I too hate it when people say they are busy. It’s like they wear it as a badge of honor. Makes me feel like I’m not worth their time. I almost never say that. I usually say I’ve been very active or something similar. I stay away from the word busy.