I debated putting this first because relationships are the core of who we are and what following Jesus is all about. However, everything up to this point is how we develop the relationship, so it’s kind of a chicken or egg situation, or maybe a “how you eat a cow” moment or something like that.

What I’m trying to say is that relationship is important. Relationships with God, with Others, with non-Christians, with your family, with your coworkers. All relationships are important in your walk with God because we were made for relationships. God, who is a God of relationships (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), created us to be in a relationship with us. Similar to the drive a husband and wife have for Children, God wanted us just for the relationship of it all. And even though he knew the pain and heartache that would happen because of creating us, he created this world anyways.

This is why, at our core, we want relationships in our life, which means we will constantly be working on relationships, and this is something we always will be working on until things are perfect again and we are as God intended us to be. It’s weird to think about what a relationship will be like in heaven when there is no jealousy, hate, or shame, or guilt to get in the way of God-centered love.

Which Relationships?

So first is looking at the kinds of relationships we’re meant to have. What has become a common language in my circles is the UP IN OUT model. This represents your relationships with God (UP), your relationship with other Christians (IN), and your relationship with your community (OUT). And it goes around and around as you continue to follow God.

We’ve talked a lot about different things to do to build your relationship with God over the past several weeks, so you can revisit those areas if you want to dive deeper, but you have to make sure to anchor yourself in your relationship with God so that you can properly connect with others. Without anchoring ourselves in God first, we are opening ourselves up to unhealthy relationships and letting emotions and culture sway us rather than having God direct us in what is the best thing in life.

Once you have anchored yourself in God, you need to surround yourself with support and accountability. Our culture today hates the thought of accountability and usually sees it as a judgment, but the longer I’ve been a Christian, the more I long for accountability and people to guide me to be a better me and live a fuller, more Christ-centered life. Christ-centered accountability is Christians holding Christians accountable for the life they signed up for when they got baptized.

Now there are right ways and wrong ways to hold people accountable, which I’ll talk about in another post, but good healthy Christian relationships have encouragement and accountability, or Grace and Truth, just like Jesus modeled in his relationship with the disciples.

Finally, there is the relationship in your community. We are called to go out into the world, baptizing and teaching them to obey all the commands Jesus gave us. That means we have to build relationships with people and go outside of our church walls.  This is basically asking yourself, “who is my neighbor?” It might be your literal neighbor; it might be someone else that you continually interact with, like a co-worker, a teacher, or a store worker. It may be one person, or there may be several, but these are the people that, for now, you are called to love like Jesus for as long as they are in your life.

What to do now?

So those are the three relationships that everyone has and should be constantly growing and improving. The next step is to identify who your IN and OUT relationships are so you can be intentional about them. Relationships don’t happen by accident; they take effort and nurturing. So take a minute and grab a piece of paper or send an email to yourself or whatever your note-taking method is, and write down who your IN relationships are and who your OUT relationships are. And if you can’t think of anyone, start paying attention to who God might be putting in your life.

Stay Weird,