relationships.

So recently God has been speaking a lot to me about relationships.  It's kind of hard to even really begin so I'll start at the beginning.

Ever since I came to college, I have been praying for a strong Christian community.  I've been looking for fellowship with fellow disciples of Christ and while I have found outlets that satisfied temporarily, I have been struggling to find a group of people that really encourage, support and love me the way Christ calls us to and let me do that for them.

Within the past semester or so, God had given me several people in my life who have really helped to shape and challenge me.  Honestly, most of the work I could say has even been done in the past couple weeks.  God has shown me friends that truly sit and listen about my relationship with Christ and my new-found strength in finding His true calling for my life.  These people bring out the best in me and when I'm around them, I'm constantly learning from them.  They give me a sense of peace and calmness that I haven't really felt before and it's something that I'm learning to apply every day in my own life.

It's also been made clear to me that God has each one of us in each other's lives for a specific reason.  We are put in people's lives to bless and love them.  At the same time though, God is not calling us to be our friend's saviors.  What I mean by that is something that I've learned first hand.  I've always been a person who, when I see a friend in need, I'm there at moment's notice to help them.  I do everything possible to make the situation better, regardless of what it demands.  But God's been teaching me that there comes a time when all the compassion and the love in the world is not going to change that person.  It is then that Christ asks us to step back and let Him do His work.  That has been a really hard concept for me to swallow.  Becoming scarce when someone is struggling is a very foreign idea to me.  But sometimes we are only in the way when we try and make things better.  Sometimes God has to remove all distractions and all help from that person's life in order to really do His work and to really make it clear to that person what He wants.

I find it amazing how God gives us these opportunities to learn such important lessons.  They always seen to come at the right time, and maybe aren't always appreciated at the moment but I love being able to look back and know that I made something of the situation.

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