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Relationships Are Like Legos

I borrowed this article from Matt Lane. He has some good thoughts about making room for new relationships. Plus, I like legos!

You can read Matt's blog at: http://www.lanewaves.com/

Last Wednesday during our small group we had a discussion about Legos. Yes those Legos. We took a break from our normal sermon based discussion to talk about why we meet and what we hope to accomplish.

And here is the main point: deep spiritual relationships

Our hope of course is that there is fruit from that main point but that is why we meet.

Now to the lego part.

Larry Osbourne in Sticky Church says, “I think of people as being like Legos. We all have a limited numeber of connectors. Introverts have a few. Some extroverts have dozens. But either way, once they’re full, they’re full. And when that happens, we tend to be friendly but to not connect. It’s what happens when when you move to a new town and are exited by everyone’s friendliness, only to be discouraged three months later that you haven’t connected with anyone.” (pg 79).

So I told the group that by joining, they are saying they will make room on their Lego. If they are already relationally full they might be friendly to other members in the group but they won’t connect. (Osbourne, Sticky Church pg 117). And if someone doesn’t want any of the other members on their Lego, well that is saying something very specific.

By gathering every Wednesday night and doing life during the rest of the week, we are being very intentional. By pursuing deep spiritual relationships with others in the group, we are purposefully trying to move through the stages of Acquaintance->Friendship->Trust & Openness->Authenticity & Accountability (Osbourne, Sticky Church, pg 112). We are not the perfect small group and we have had to fight for some things but God has blessed us with tons of grace. And it’s been way worth it.

The Bible is very clear that as a Christian we are designed for deep community. Community that is sometimes messy and sometimes painful. Life experiance seems to say that by default many of us get by with several shallow friendships but few if any, deeply spiritual ones.

Here is my push. Say no to many people so you can say yes to a few. You may not like it at first. You might even fight it. But it’s worth it. They are worth it. You are worth it. And Jesus is more than worth it.

So who’s on your Lego?

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