Manifesto

"This is great," a coworker joked while I was handing him some paperwork a few weeks ago.  "I've known you seven years and I've never seen your manifesto."

 

I smiled and continued on.  But the seed worked its way deep.  A manifesto?  Isn't that what serial felons mail to newspapers to explain their psychotic crime sprees?  An explanation of why they do what they do? 

 

Maybe everyone has a manifesto.  Some probably have an internal one  and might even be surprised if they were to write it down.   So why not?  It's boring, but here's mine:

 

If you had to boil life down to one concept...one word...the word would be "relationships."

 

This planet is only about relationships...our relationship with Jesus, our relationship with others, our relationships as individuals and our relationship in groups who relate to other individuals and groups.  That's the purpose of life.  If you have a better one, tell me now so I can tear this up and get it right.

 

In his unsearchable wisdom, God has provided for us uncountable numbers of relationships...good and bad... that we can observe and learn from.

 

God is perfect and has the relationship thing down pat.  As the one who invented them, it stands to reason that his relationships are perfect and would be worth looking at. 

 

Most relationships seem to be cyclical.  One member initiates and another responds, and so begins the cycle.

 

Look at the beautiful relationship in the oxygen cycle.  Animals breathe in oxygen, and breathe out carbon dioxide.  Plants take in the carbon dioxide and emit oxygen.  This relationship is a perfect cycle.

 

Look at the water cycle.  Water in the clouds falls to earth, allowing for fertile ground and rivers which transform the land.   The water is lifted back into the heavens and the cycle repeats perfectly (unless you're a farmer in South Dakota, where it's always too much or too little.)

 

We can see the extremely complex relationships in the human body, with the thousands and thousands of parts having needs, then having them met from other organs, and then providing for the good of the others.  (How anyone can look at this incredible and miraculous interrelationship of organs and conclude it was all per chance absolutely staggers me, but that's a topic for another time.)

 

I don't mean to wrongly over-simplify interpersonal relationships, but you can see a healthy pattern in many marriage relationships.  The husband shows sacrificial love to his wife.  His wife receives it and this allows her to respond with sacrificial respect to her husband, which frees him to love his wife more sacrificially and we can see how this relationship can be a perfect cycle of love and respect.

 

In a healthy relationship between a parent and infant, the parent initiates vital imparting of things like love, protection, nurturing and care.  This allows the child to respond with increasing trust, love and respect.

 

In these relationships we can see glimpses of our relationship with God, who will always relate to us perfectly because God loves each one of us perfectly.  His love for each one of us is deeper, and more secure, than any of us could begin to conceive.

 

Perfect relationships between people or between people and God have these in common:

 

1.  Appropriate giving and taking based on the strengths, gifts and weaknesses of the parties.

2.  The relationship is healthy to both parties.

3.  Both parties experience satisfaction in the relationship.

4.  The relationship is sustainable for the long term. (No one burns out.)

5.  The parties focus on the relationship over themselves. (This is obviously not the case in parent/child relationships, where the child has not matured enough to consider others.)

 

The most important part of life is growing relationships and the most important relationship is the one we have with God.  God has promised to do some things and therefore we can say this is God's Responsibility for His Relationship With Me

 

1.  He initiates the relationship.  I can respond or refuse.

2.  He loves, protects and guides me.  He loves me more than I love myself, and cares about the details of my life more than I care about them.

3.  He nurtures and nourishes me and produces acceptable spiritual fruit in me.

 

This of course requires my response.  Matthew 18:3 says "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of God."  My responsibilities in this relationship:

 

1.  Yield all control...like a little child...to my loving father.  (This struggle for control is a HUGE issue...maybe THE issue.  When I demand control, it turns out I lose control.  When I give him control, the ride becomes controlled.)

2.  His love allows me to respond with respect.

3.  Agree with him when I've done wrong

4.  The quicker the better.

 

Imagine one of those old New England water mills...where the river pours over the huge wheel, which turns and grinds the grain inside.  This is an excellent analogy of our relationship with God.

 

Our job is simply to be an open valve and allow the water to flow over the wheel.  This is simply our opening up to the Holy Spirit.  It's the water's (Spirit's) job to do the work, not mine.  As the Holy Spirit flows through us, you can expect these things to happen:

 

1.  We are transformed into his image as we see in Romans 12:2

2.  We will see the results of his work called "fruits of the spirit."

3.  Maturity

4.  Meaningful and abundant life

5.  Peace with God.

6.  Harmony with other believers