My friend went to prom with a guy because he was a good lover.
Another said yes because the guy was rich.
Yet another friend asked a girl to go because his mother made him.
We get into (and out of) relationships for varied and sometimes complex reasons. When we’re young we go by one set of measures that (hopefully) change as we mature.
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus has matured, and he now calls his first disciples to follow him. Up to this point Jesus has led a single life, and now, following his baptism, he has reached maturity in both age and vocation. His reasons for choosing, and not choosing relationships have been honed. He is not out looking for the handsome, rich, or well connected. He chooses his friends based on one thing: mission.
As we know, Jesus didn’t come to earth to make us happy. He came to reconcile the world to God. He came to love us all out of our brokenness and into wholeness with the Almighty.
So Jesus chooses the relationships he will have and won’t have based on their abilities to further the love of God made manifest in healing, preaching, and total self-giving. He chooses faithful people who sacrifice for him whom he will, in turn, sacrifice everything for.
How do the relationships we choose help further God’s mission? How do they make us be more loving, selfless, and sacrificing? What are our motivations as we choose to get into, or maintain, our most important relationships? Are we only in it to make us happy? Or are we surrounding ourselves with good people that make us better able for the work God is doing through us?
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Reading
Everything Must Change – Brian McLaren
Reading
Everything Must Change – Brian McLaren
Pastor – Eugene Peterson
The Art of the Start – Guy Kawasaki
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