JR. Forasteros - November 6, 2011

What's Behind Us

This is Not the End

We live in a world shaped by choices other people have made. We live in an inheritance that seems pretty broken most of the time. It's easy to feel trapped by what's been chosen for us. But God gave Ezekiel a message for the Israelite Exiles that we need to hear too. God says that we are responsible to choose God here and now, in our time. That we will be held accountable not for what others have done to us but what we choose. What's behind us doesn't define us.

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We are, by nature, relational creatures. From the time we’re born, we’re in relationships with other people. And it doesn’t matter if you’re extroverted, like me, and have a wide pool of relationships, or you’re more introverted and have a few, deep relationships. We all have them. We need them. We were created for them.

So we all know relationships are hard work. Especially the more you get to know someone – you start to realize they’re not like you. They don’t see the world the same way you do. They don’t think the same way. And it causes conflict.

In the first church where I was a youth pastor, I had a parent who was that person for me. From the day her family joined the church, it was clear she did not like me or the way I pastored our teens. And she wasn’t shy about letting me know. Barely a week went by that she didn’t send me an email, call me or come to my office. And of course, this was church, so I couldn’t kick her out or anything. But honestly, if that was a relationship I could have walked away from, I would have in a second.

I don’t think that’s just me. It sure seems like a lot of us treat relationships as more disposable the older I get. Rather than work hard on our relationships, we ditch them – whether it’s a break up text, icing out a coworker, the cold shoulder to a spouse, ghosting on a friendship or avoiding family reunions.

Easter proves that God cares about relationships. And Easter matters especially when our relationships get hard. So if you have any relationships in your life that are hard right now, you came to the right place.

God raised Jesus from the dead, and that’s very good news for our relationships.

Join us Sunday as we learn how God’s faithfulness enables us to be faithful.

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