Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Art of Communication

After my last post, I got a text from someone asking if it was about them. This was pretty funny to me because these peeps were probably farthest from my mind when I wrote it. In fact, I really didn't have any particular person in mind when I wrote. It was just something I've experienced here and there in life and felt like writing it out. It seemed like a universal that most could identify with at some time or another. Or maybe I'm just weird.

Who isn't?

Then I got to thinking who else is going to see themselves in this post? Uh oh. Will they be offended? It's not meant to be offensive. It was supposed to be the opposite of that. Seeking glimpses of God's renewal, everywhere. But that's what happens when you combine different people with different perspectives, trying to interpret each other. It's amazing we ever get anything accomplished. I'm reading a book right now that talks about how strange it is how we view Jesus calming the storm as more miraculous than his ability to see and heal human hearts. John Arnold says it takes "more obedience to the Father's will, more divine energy to face his fellow human beings and subdue them, than it did to outface the storm." After all, it was people that crucified him.

Communicating well is an art form.
One in which I have yet to master. Even when it is done well, there's still the potential for getting screwed anyway. But when it's happening like it's supposed to it's such a beautiful thing; those moments when you truly feel known and know another. When our masks of self-preservation and self-centeredness are dropped. Those moments are fleeting as we're confined to this flesh but such a glimpse into a future reality when our communicating with others is actually communing with them. When the games that we humans play, even unrealized, are no longer, but replaced by wisdom and vulnerability coming together in perfect unity.

We'll get each other. Someday. We labor not in vain. Someday, we'll see things as they are, unveiled. The good work He promises to be faithful to complete in us will be completed. Yet, while we're not living in the completed, the Somday can also be right now. Real, meaningful relationships are achievable. Authentic community isn't just a pipe dream. It just happens to be a lot of work. How thankful I am for those that are willing. In this, the Someday meets today.

He is the Hope of the impossible. 
Come quickly, Lord Jesus. 

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