Corny title, huh?! LOL! Well, I dusted off the treadmill this morning...hope I can move tomorrow! It's been about, well, maybe since the first of November since I've been on it despite the fact that I parked it in my living room about 6 months ago so I would do it daily!! I did get on it faithfully for the first four months but then basketball season hit, I got tired and started hitting snooze. :) I decided to beat myself to my new year's resolution and get back on the wagon on Dec. 29th!
While on the treadmill, I had one of the books I'm currently reading (I tend to read several at once, crazy I know). I started "The Shack" by William P. Young last year after Matt Mosler recommended it in his emails I subscribe to. I had to actually order it from the author's website b/c it wasn't available in stores yet. I read half immediately and loved it, but then I was trying to find a Sunday School study for my class and got caught up reading several different books for that and in the meantime I lost it! A while back, I found it...I think it was under my car seat..go figure! I picked back up and all I can say is, WOW!! Honestly, there are pages I read and I have to read them twice..especially in the second half of the book where I am now. Now this is a fiction book, don't get me wrong, but he talks about the trinity and your relationship with God like no other non-fiction book (outside of the Bible of course) that I have ever read.
I want to share something I read in it today that really spoke to me about relationships with others...this is from pg. 106 and Mack (the main character) has been having dinner with Papa (God), Sarayu (Holy Spirit), and Jesus. Mack has been sharing things about his family and he began questioning why they listen to him and ask questions about his family as if it's the first time they have heard when they are all-knowing. Sarayu replies....."Remember, that choosing to stay on the ground is a choice to facilitate a relationship. Mackenzie, you do this yourself. You don't play a game or color a picture with a child to show your superiority. Rather, you choose to limit yourself so as to facilitate and honor that relationship. You will even lose a competition to accomplish love. It is not about winning and losing, but about love and respect."
"So when I am telling you about my children?"
"We have limited ourselves out of respect for you. We are not bringing to mind, as it were, our knowledge of your children. As we are listening to you, it is as if this is the first time we have known about them, and we take great delight in seeing them through your eyes.........Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself-to serve. Humans often do this-in touching the infirm and sick, in serving the ones whose minds have left to wander, in relating to the poor, in loving the very old and the very young, or even in caring for the other who has assumed a position of power over them."
We talked yesterday in Sunday School a little bit about relationships in beginning our new study...about that God cares about the little details in your life because it's like that snowball affect...the little problems and stresses affect the roles you play in your life which affect the relationships you have with other people......and relationships are important to God.
Have a great day!
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