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Connectedness

When my husband and I were in the falling-in-love stage of our relationship, I worried that my love for him would compete against my love for God - that I had to choose between the two - that loving God and loving a man couldn't co-exist. I expresed this concern to my sister who, at the time, was an old married woman with five years of marriage under her belt. She looked at me, somewhat surprised at my question and said, "If you love God, how can you not love Marc?"

Her answer has (obviously) stayed with me all these years.

I recently had a conversation with my daughter in which she gave me a synopsis of a book by Rob Bell, The Sex God (you can find it at Barnes and Noble or Amazon). Rob Bell's message is somewhat similar to my sister's words that day so many years ago, but with a slightly different angle. Rob Bell's message, according to Ami, is that spirituality is connectedness to God. Sexuality is connectedness to other human beings. Our lives are all about unity - with each other and with God.

The morning after my conversation with Ami, I read an excerpt from a book by Henri Nouwen, (Compassion: The Core of Spiritual Leadership):
"Our heart, soul, and mind can never be divided between God and neighbor. God is a jealous God who wants our love without any reservations. But in our total, undivided commitment to God, God is revealed to us as the God of our neighbor and so makes our love for God a love that embraces all people in time and place . . . Therefore, union with God is solidarity with all humanity."

Check out John 17 (Jesus' high priestly prayer). Jesus is all about unity. God created us to be together; to be social beings. Connecting with others is a core longing in each of us - even in those of us (like me) who treasure silence and being alone.

Of all the differnt relationship in life (brother to brother, sister to sister, brother to sister, father to daughter, etc.), the marriage relationship is the only one designed to be a picture of Christ and the church. It's the ultimate level of connectedness to another human - or at least that's the set-up. As we know, marriages don't always turn out that way. . .

To be continued . . .

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