God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25 (NIV)
The Mystery – Relationship Series – Part 8
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7 | PART 8
Relationships.
Beautiful.
Hard.
Joy
Pain.
Grief.
Love.
Loss.
Conflict.
Heartache.
Neglect.
Abuse.
Community.
Together.
Kids.
Partners.
Family.
Friends.
Strangers.
Relationships.
In your relationships, embrace the brutal and the beautiful. It’s all a part of it. After all, the point IS NOT to live a perfect, well-manicured life. The point is togetherness. Sharing. Embracing. Arms-linked. Hearts weaved. Lives mixed in. And yep, that means pain will be a part of it too. It will be messy, unpredictable and beautiful.
Show up. Do the work. Have fun along the way.
God is relationship.
Richard Rohr says:
“Who is this God? For both Jesus and Paul, God is an Infinite Flow—which we eventually call Trinity. God is much more a verb than a noun. All things exist inside of that Flow, come out from that Flow, and return to that Flow. Only for a while are we allowed to choose to act from within this Flow consciously, freely, and happily; or alternatively, to resist it.
The very nature of Being is communion, infinite generosity, and unhindered giving and receiving between three, which then becomes the template for the whole universe, from atoms to galaxies.
It’s not that this Being we call God occasionally decides to love; love is the very nature and shape of God, who cannot not love! The Flow is always and forever in one positive direction. We ourselves are already participating in this love, this divine “dance” (perichoresis) of Being, even when we do not know how to enjoy it or consciously join in the dance. We are still dancing anyway. Divine Life knows and sustains us in our deepest being (Acts 17:28), even when we fail to say thank you.”
He goes on to say:
“Paul says, “God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). That awesome line gives us a key into the Mystery of Trinity. I would describe human strength as self-sufficiency or autonomy. God’s weakness I would describe as Interbeing.
Human strength admires holding on. The Mystery of the Trinity is about each One letting go into the Other. Human strength admires personal independence. God’s Mystery is total mutual dependence. We like control. God loves vulnerability. We admire needing no one. The Trinity is total intercommunion with all things and all Being. We are practiced at hiding and protecting ourselves. God seems to be in some kind of total disclosure for the sake of the other.
Our strength, we think, is in asserting and protecting our boundaries. God is into dissolving boundaries between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet finding them in that very outpouring! Take the rest of your life to begin to unpackage such a total turnaround of Reality.” (taken from Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations).
The mystery of the Trinity is the mystery reflected in our relationships. We need each other. I can’t help but imagine what the world will look like the more we learn to love each other purely, in this Trinitarian dance of you, me and others.
In all your relationships: honor the pain, celebrate the joys, dance and cry and eat and sleep and laugh and work. We are here FOR each other, and we mean more to each other than we might dare admit.
Over to you. Leave us your comments below.
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