For many of us, relationships are transactional. We are in relationships that help us do something, get something, or learn something. So many relationships have an agenda. Even Christianity has been guilty of encouraging people to be in relationships with others in order to get them to believe something. This way of viewing relationships has done a great disservice to our faith and our communities. Neither my faith nor my lived experiences lead me to embrace this understanding. Christianity isn’t about coercion. It’s about love. If I believe that God is the ultimate Lover and became human simply to show us that we were loved and model for us how to love ourselves and others, then the purpose of any relationship I’m in is to love.
This message is excerpted from “The flipside of life-changing” by Rozella Haydée White in the November 2019 Gather magazine.
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