Church Values: Authentic Relationships

For anyone who has been on a first date empathy can be felt with this story.  I can remember the first date I had with my wife.  For some reason I felt the very large need to impress.  After all, I didn’t want her running away from me screaming, never wanting to see my face again.  So, throughout the date I asked her questions such as, “What’s your favorite color?” and “What music do you like to listen to?”  Later on in the date I drove her into the country to watch the sun set.  While the sun was going down I broke out the sparkling grape juice and asked her to dance with me to the music we had playing.  She said no, which wasn’t a good sign of things.

 

On the surface these types of things seem innocent enough because I was just trying to get to know her and her me.  But the problem was that I was trying to get to know this beautiful girl by scratching the surface.  And what seemed to me a way to impress her only scared her to death.  I barely knew her and I was asking her to dance.  Thankfully I learned my lesson and over the next number of months we began to get to know each other in a deeper way that wasn’t forced.

 

In my attempt to impress I lost sight of who I really was.  And one reason I was reluctant to be authentic with my future wife was that I was scared that if she saw who I really was she would never come around me again.  The mask I wore was not me.  It was what I wanted her to see.  And it certainly was not authentic.

 

We all desire authentic relationships, but what do these types of relationships look like and how do they come about?  Do we wear a “mask” with the intention of hiding our true selves?  It is our desire as God’s people to be a church that has authentic relationships with others so that disciples of Christ will be made.

 

Join us this week as we explore what God’s Word has to say about authentic relationships as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  May the Spirit reveal His truth to us and may we have the courage to be authentic to one another as His people so the glory of God can be seen by others.

 

By the way, after my wife and I were married it was normal for us to go out to watch the sun set and the stars come out while drinking sparkling grape juice.  And we have danced many times since.