Totally Relational, Part One

A.W. Tozer famously stated that, “the most important thing about you is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about God.” In the entire world, there is no subject where there are more ideas and opinions than about God. The opinions vary greatly, and most of them are held with very strong convictions. In situations like this I like to say that “perception is reality.” 

Whatever we believe is our truth, until we are exposed to other truth that broadens our vision. Truth that builds walls and does not allow serious scrutiny and investigation is not really truth at all, it is more of a dogma that is religious and not relational.  

Our Creator and our Designer never changes. His values, His principles and His character are constant. However, His relationship with each of us is constantly changing. Not because He is changing, but because He is changing us. If our relationship is not changing and we are not becoming more intimate and increasingly closer to Him, where our understanding is growing deeper and wider, then we must revisit how it is that we see our Friend and how we believe that He sees us.

Personally, my greatest challenge with my relational Friend was that I was trying to make Him and my relationship with Him religious. He is not religious and He does not want, nor is it His plan for us, to have a religious experience with Him. He is totally and completely relational and that is what He wants and what He desires from us. He was relational in the garden, at the very beginning with humanity in-time, and He is relational now.

To change from a religious view of life (regulation and compliance) to a relational perspective (fellowship and communion) for the living of our life requires a paradigm shift in how we think, what we believe and how we choose to act.

In next week's blog, we will discuss what this necessary paradigm shift looks like.