There’s a poison moving through our generation. It’s more evident than I’d like to admit. I’ve seen it run it’s course a few times now and my heart breaks at it’s persistence and unmovable nature.
I’m nervous to write this, more over I’m nervous to publish this for you to read. It’s a issue a few too many are nervous to breach and I don’t feel that I’m at any sort of advantage to share these thoughts, and yet it’s constant presence in the lives of those around me allows me to be brave enough to reach out and share what’s on my mind.
Let me preface this by saying that I am not the bitter old maid in this. This is not a representation of how I’ve been affected at the moment, but instead a reaction to how those around me are currently being affected. I’m blessed that this has not been something to affect me directly, but the fact that it is a permanent scar in the lives of many around me is enough for me to be upset. Let me also say that I am not here to judge, and I am not here to berate anyone for their actions against any one else. But I am here to say that my heart breaks in this, my heart hurts for those who have been hurt by this, and those people bring me to these words.
People have become far too dispensable to one another.
It’s disgusting. It’s irritating. And I’m tired of seeing it happen on such a consistent basis. There are few things that I am vehemently disgusted by, but this is one I cannot let slide by.
Just last summer, a few friends and I sat high atop Horsetooth Rock and experienced one of the the best revelations of my college career… a short moment in which we realized how truly thankful we were for one another, and how unbelievably blessed we were with the people the Lord had placed in our lives. True community took on a whole new meaning. We began listing off name after name, thanking the Lord for each person and the place they held in our hearts, secretly bragging on ways they had individually blessed us. It was in that moment that we decided that intentionality would be our hearts cry. We made a short list of promises to ourselves, those people, and to the Lord, including spending more quality time with people and making sure that people knew exactly how much we appreciated them in our lives. It’s been a work in progress, and I won’t dare brag that there has been any sort of measure of success, because there are definitely moments within the last year that I can assure I did a terrible job at fulfilling my promise to myself and those around me. But altogether, I’m here to say I feel unbelievably blessed to have lived a year with that mindset! Putting people first in my daily life was relentlessly challenging, and yet incredibly fulfilling. I can safely say that the Lord allowed me to create and foster relationships that I have trust in and that I know are not fleeting. He has graced me with people who challenge me, support me and won’t let me get away with anything not worth getting away with. He has allowed me to be able to share my heart with them, be vulnerable with them, and be honest with them. He has graced me with a new-found ability to tell people exactly what they mean to me, without fear of rejection or awkwardness (something I grew up with and was well adjusted to.) It’s community liked I’ve never experienced it, and I love it. I feel blessed beyond words, and trust me when I say, my people mean the world to me.
So maybe it’s been happening all along, and I just didn’t have the eye for it. Or maybe it’s the newest trend in dealing with struggle, but either way people have become far too dispensable to one another. What ever happened to “let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’, and your ‘no’ be ‘no’”. This middle ground is exhausting. It’s time we take ourselves out of the picture and start loving on people like Jesus loved on people. You’re in relationship with one another to be in relationship with one another. Why is that so hard to grapple with?
Life brings you struggles. Let people in, don’t shut them out. Life gets busy. Let people be busy with you, don’t bar them from experiencing the roller coaster that business can sometimes be.
It’s ironic to me that the word intention, used medically, means to “the process by which or the manner in which a wound heals.” Something to ponder. Living life with intention not only means living life with a purpose or a goal concerning persons around me, but it also means that in living that out wounds are being healed. What a beautiful reality!
I’m renewing my life of intentionality. I’m asking the Lord to show me areas where I’m failing miserably and I’m hoping that he will grant me favor in showing me. I’m praying that we can all begin to live lives of intentionality; live lives in which we love one another, show grace to one another and are willing to set everything aside for a few hours with one another. I’m praying that the Lord allow us to make ourselves available to people in ways we have not been able to be before. I’m asking the Lord reveal to people of our generation just how invaluable those around them really are, and how blessed we are to even be in community with one another. I’m praying big prayers, asking for the impossible knowing that He has untapped power He is ready to unleash.
The Lord designed us with intention, let’s live with it! People are not dispensable, let’s recognize and act on that.
