Have you ever been successful with long distance relationships? I know that the ones I have been involved with start out with great intentions of keeping in touch. And still, with all the methods available today for instant communication (IM, facebook, emails, tweets, texts, etc.), most LD relationships end up becoming sporadic at best until they peter out into nothing. I’ve lost track of a number of rather special people because of this.
What’s missing in these relationships is the intimacy, the immediacy – the face to face. There are two contradicting saying related to this – one says that absence makes the heart grow fonder and the other declares that familiarity brings contempt. I’m inclined to believe that absence doesn’t enhance relationships. Too much happens in our lives that it’s impossible to share it all and yet the ‘all’ comprises who we are becoming.
I would argue that the above also relates to our relationship with the Lord. He’s not interested in a long-distance relationship. Once you have accepted Him as Lord, He wants to be intimately involved. How often do you invite the Lord into your day-to-day? He’s not going to encroach, He always waits to be invited. Trouble is… we often don’t think in this way. Perhaps it’s not ‘holy’ enough or maybe we’re shy when we are near Him or maybe we’re just unthinking. Whatever the reason – we need to be more aware.
In the first place, why would you want a LD relationship with the Lord? That’s equivalent to being invited to a grand feast and only having the soup course. Makes no sense. With all that the Lord brings with Himself for you why limit what He will do in your life? But to make an impact, He has to be invited to participate.
I would argue that this relationship is an either/or. Either He’s invited and participates or He isn’t. I don’t believe that you can pick and choose – be involved with my health but don’t touch my money. An LD relationship, spasmodic at best, is not the most advantageous for us especially since the Lord wants to be involved. In every instance it will be the person agreeing to what the Lord proposes – He will never force you to choose.
