A thought by Ed Young, from his book, The Fear Virus: Vaccinating Yourself Against Life's Greatest Phobias (p.80). Creality Publishing. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
We really do need each other.
Ed says, “When we do not take those risks, when we hide behind our fears, we are disobeying God. Now when I say relational risk, it might not be the kind of risk you are thinking of. It’s not about adventurous and dangerous ‘James Bond’ kind of stuff. No, what I mean by relational risk is the boldness of being friendly. Although it might not seem like it on the surface, if you really think about it, friendliness is a very vulnerable and bold action. Proverbs 18:24 says, ‘A man who has friends must himself be friendly’ (NKJV). We all want friends. And if you want to have friends, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions. What kind of friend would I like to have? Am I willing to be that kind of friend?”
He goes on, “I have moved around many times in my life. I have moved from Canton, North Carolina; to Taylors, South Carolina; to Columbia, South Carolina; to Houston, Texas; to Tallahassee, Florida; back to Houston, Texas; and from there to Dallas, Texas. A while back, I was thinking about the deep relationships God has given me over the years even though I moved around a lot. I asked myself what the common thread was in those relationships. What quality or qualities made those relationships work? Then it came to me. I have taken the initiative in almost every relationship I have had. I have taken regular relational risks. I knew that if I was going to have deep friendships, I had to show myself friendly. More than that, I had to be vulnerable with those whom I wanted to develop deeper relationships.
“Here is what many of us do in the church in regard to relationships. Week in and week out, we walk into the church, and we look for a seat. We think to ourselves, ‘Boy, there sure are a lot of people here. This is a big church.’ We find our seat and we just sit there. And then after a while, maybe several months, we say to ourselves, ‘No one talked to me. No one came up to me. This church is just not a friendly place. It is full of snobs.’ Then we go to another church and do the same thing again. After a while we say, ‘No one talked to me. No one came up to me. I guess this church is just full of snobs too. No one cares about me. I want to relate to people. I want to talk to people, but no one comes up to me.’
He then says, “God does not want to hear those weak excuses. He wants you to take relational risks. A person who wants a friend must show himself to be a friendly person. It’s time to step out and see what God has in store for you.”
We are in a pandemic right now, but we have a phone, we have the internet, we can still reach out. Maybe reaching out to a person from work who is now working at home would really make a difference. Why not take the risk and reach out, ok?
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