Rethinking the Box

Often we approach the idea of a relationship with God using different criteria than we would any other relationship in our lives. We’re created to be relational beings, but relating to God feels somehow different.

There seem to be more rules, and some of them we don’t fully understand. We believe He loves us, but we’re often left wondering where we stand with Him. The relationship feels like it’s predicated on special conditions, like we need to make sure we read all of the fine print. But is this how it works?

A relationship that looks more like a contractual agreement than a life-giving collaboration is no relationship at all. It certainly isn’t enough to perpetuate the relationship or a place God would want to live. Jesus spoke of this in a confrontation with Jewish religious leaders found in John’s Gospel:

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.”

John 5:39-40 NLT

The religious leaders, in an attempt to protect their traditions and faith in the Mosaic law, were blinded to the fact that God Himself was standing right in front of them.

They were so entrenched in getting their belief system correct so that God would relate to them, they missed the fact that God was right there relating to them in person.

So maybe it’s not God who has made this so complicated. Maybe we’ve turned Him into something He’s not. Maybe we’ve tried to create God in our own image and then attempted to force Him to be who we want or need Him to be.

But life-giving, collaborative relationships only work when two people have permission to be who they are. One of the beautiful things we find in the gospel of Jesus is that we are allowed to come as we are into the relationship.