I penned off last week by asking you how your relationship is with God, with your family, friends, workmates, leaders, fellow church members etc.
As I said last week, the world is hungry for real, genuine relationships. There is a longing deep inside to ‘connect’ in a personal intimate way with people, despite having all those e-connections at our fingertips. I believe lack of genuine relationships can lead to catastrophic results.
When I went to Hawaii, I got into a conversation with my classmate who deals with the issue of homelessness in her country. She told me that those who experience a housing crisis in their lives report that one of the precipitating factors leading to their situation had to do with broken relationships. While other significant factors such as insufficient income and high-cost of housing enter into the equation, relational issues such as domestic violence, multiple families in single dwellings, reliance upon family for resources and the resultant stress created, are the predominant reason for the crisis leading to their homelessness.
We have also probably heard about the crisis in families and the subsequent devastating effects on the children and our society as a whole. The breakdown of the family unit has driven teens to look for relationship with a sense of belonging elsewhere—such as in gangs! This is truly a sad indicator of the desperate need for meaningful relationships.
There is an innate longing in our hearts for relationship. God placed it there when He created us. Did you ever wonder why prisons use solitary confinement as a punishment? Do you recall those days when parents wanted to discipline you, they would lock you up in the bedroom for quite some time. It was very painful! Nowadays, they call it the ‘naughty corner’ but it all spells one thing—to experience isolation because isolation is contrary to the way we were made and is, therefore, painful. n
