.: the space between - pt. 3 :.

I do not write such things so as to complicate the matter, but rather, to shed light on the reality of the nature of our relationships. So often, we find the common struggle – the reality that we repeatedly wrestle with at moments in our life – of trying so desperately to deal with the issue of where your friendships are at and where you long for them to be in light of what they even could be. In those friendships that we possess where we have reached the potential, we have the tendency to slip into a mode of ease. It is those very friendships that we applaud and value because they require little work. And in turn, they require little to no work because the effort and toil required to deepen them is so modest and minute that they quickly achieve their potential on the heels of a common experience (tragedy, trial, joy, etc.).



In the setting of those friendships where the person's “interests” are not divided, that is where we typically find the relentless struggle to deepen them, and if we fail to do so, we are forced to explain them through finding defect or incompetence on the part of either them or yourself. We have such a hard time dealing with those types of relationships because the same instances where we stand to gain so much is the exact same place where we stand to lose so much. And because we stand to lose so much, we struggle and wrestle and fidget and strive to get such relationships, work earnestly on such relationships, and hope in the deepest parts of our heart to never do anything to even remotely come close to ruining or losing them.



Those that say that love shouldn’t be such hard work are typically those whom have managed to wrestle with wisdom and clarity in the past. Oh, that we might all do that with more wisdom as we become fully human beings in the reality of the in-breaking Kingdom of God.