We’re family. In fact, this statement is the motivation behind a lot of things we do. It simply means, we don’t do life alone. One thing we really try to instill into our students, volunteers, leaders, teachers etc. is that we have two commands, to love God and to love others. (See Matthew 22:37-40) We were created for relationship with God and others. However, we can’t effectively do this until we develop a relationship with Jesus. Because when we love God first, we love others better. That’s why we encourage relationships. Let’s face it, you’re going to be in relationship with people, and you can’t do life without them. So we want the people that you and I come in contact with to have the tools and the wisdom necessary to know how to properly manage relationships. The truth is we’re going to spend a portion of our life trying to figure out and find two very important things. Finding ourselves and finding people to do life with. Who we are and who we want to be with. This is important because the quality of our lives is not just determined by who we are, it is equally impacted by who we are with.

Even though relationships are only as healthy as we are, even though your individuality and your identity is important, it’s not good, for you to be alone. After God created everything in the beginning, that was the first time God said it wasn’t good, and it was in reference to relationships. He knew that an isolated life leaves us weak and lonely. Isolation is the only thing that God said wasn’t good in all creation. And we are unique because we have this gift called free will that God has given us, which allows us to choose who we want in our lives. We get to hand select these people, and we must choose wisely, because the people we say yes to will make our lives more difficult or more fruitful. So my question is, have you invited Jesus into the middle of your relationships? See when God is in the middle of your relationships, everything changes because your relationships surround God instead of us asking God to surround them. Instead of asking God to bless our relationships, we’re saying, “God I need you to be in this with me. I can’t do this by myself.”

We must first, fall in love with God, and then fall in love with ourselves. Why? Because you can only love others at the level in which you love yourself. So my last question to you is, if Jesus isn’t enough for you, what makes you think someone else will be? Real life change happens in real relationships, and it’s through relating to others that we grow and evolve. People need people, but not just any kind of people. Godly people need godly people. And how do we do that?

You + Christ + Me = We