impossible without it

originally i created this blog so i could post a comment on a friend's blog. and now that i have it, i'm trying my best to put something of somewhat interest on it. sometimes i just don't have a clue. but as i was cleaning my desk today, i found this devotional that i had printed out. so i thought i'd post it on here. it mainly deals with forgiveness in fellowship. i identified with it and liked it so much that i wanted to share it, so hopefully you'll get something out of it as i did.

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Relationships are all about forgiveness, because we are all in such a mess, we are all in such a need of it. Applying large doses of forgiveness is a necessary requirement for any relationship to flourish.

Authentic fellowship requires forgiveness or it is a phony, surface fellowship. It skips over the sins, disappointments and letdowns of our lives because these are too painful or too hard to face.

The only way it wouldn't be about forgiveness would be if everyone were perfect, and I checked myself in the mirror recently and concluded that my perfection doesn't look like a possibility at least in my immediate future. I desperately need those around me to be forgiving if I am going to get anywhere near them, because I have so much in me that will stand in the way of a real relationship if it's not brought out into the open. And when something like that is brought out into the open, something has to be done about it. It has to be the featured obstacle, the reason we can't get close, or it has to be forgiven.

I really don't see this going any other way. Because we are all going to fail each other's expectations so assuredly, I see only three possibilities here. Hate or fear each other and completely avoid any relationship. Carry on a superficial relationship where we hide most of our real feelings behind a mask of pretension. Or come out into the open and love each other applying forgiveness liberally to others and ourselves. Forgiveness is the only way to avoid resentment and anger. Fellowship is impossible without it.

"Above all, love each other deeply," wrote Peter, "because love covers over a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). Whose sins are being covered over here, I wonder. I bet it is everyone's. Love enables me to look past your sins and be in relationship with you. And love enables you to look past my sins and be in relationship with me. Not only that, but it also allows us to have our own sins forgiven so we can have a sense of being worth something to someone else as a friend.

Fellowship is a great thing, but don't even try it without a commitment to forgiving each other. Otherwise, your fellow 'ship' will never even get out of the harbor.


- John Fischer, Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional

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pretty much my thoughts on friendships right now are these: one, they're amazing and fantastic and i thank God for those friends that are a joy to be around, where we share our lives and what is on our hearts, where we pray together & for one another, and hanging out is fun and full of laughs. the second thought i have about friendships is that they're sometimes really hard, and sometimes even heartbreaking. i feel like over the past while i've had some friendships that have been tough. mainly because they've ended abruptly, or there is a lot of geographical distance between us and they're harder to maintain. so what do you do?... take the good with the bad. i am finding for myself that i have to choose to love others as Christ does, regardless if the relationship is healthy and thriving, or fragile and distant. it's not an easy task, but so worth trying, knowing full well that i am not perfect, and have much to learn about loving people. i thank God for those great friendships, and i will continue to do my best in those tougher ones, trusting that God has a bigger picture in mind. and He always does, so Amen to that.