Connection is the Core of Being

We were created for connection. We were created for intimacy. Connection with God and connection with others is the core of our meaning and existence. I’m reading a book called Enjoying the Presence of God by Jan Johnson, which shows the connection and intimacy we are to have with God. There are many things in life that can cause disconnect in our relationship with God and others. Technology is causing a breech of connection in today’s world. It distracts us from a focused relationship with God and connection with each other. Though it would logically seem that facebook and iphones would naturally build connection, there is now much disconnect in human presence and community. We need human presence as one of our core needs. Though I am eternally grateful for Skype and technology so I can keep building relationships with friends from around the world, I must also be aware of the person right in front of me, instead of always having a phone or laptop between myself and an individual who may be experiencing the pain of disconnection. I am so thankful for my experiences in community-oriented cultures that have broken down barriers that have been nurtured in me from growing up in an individualistic culture that is prone to focus on the task instead of the relationships.

I am sharing this message not because I am some expert in it, but because God has been convicting me in areas of disconnect and is moving my heart with a message close and central to His heart, teaching me how to turn from my ways and walk into His ways in surrender. He is speaking to the body of Christ this same message. Family was a theme that kept coming up last week when I attended the Abolition Summit in Kansas City. God convicted me of how I tend to disconnect in seasons of transition as well as in new seasons where I’m only planning to stay somewhere for a short time. I have realized the dysfunction in living this way, and realize that in times when something is not right in my spirit, it is often because there is either some type of disconnect in my relationship with God or others. I often minimize the impact that a short interaction or connection with a person can bring – it can bring a world of difference if we are willing to put aside our agenda to listen to Holy Spirit and allow Him to speak to a person through us. Building connection - real connection - connection that is deep and raw, is vulnerable because others might be living in disconnect and reject us. They may have experienced pain in someone they love being taken from them, or the hurt of a broken relationship, or the unwanted separation of a friend moving away. This has led them to a state of disconnect. We cope with the threat of loss and pain of rejection by building walls that keep us from connecting.

Part of the reason why we live in a society of disconnect is because we live in a society of broken families. We need a body of people around us who unconditionally love and accept us at our worst, modeling the love of Christ who died for us when we still hated Him. It is easy to connect with those we share common interests with. It’s easy to stay in our “bubble” and safe community. My university was called “The Bethel Bubble” because it was one of these safe communities where everyone shared similar values. However, we were continually challenged there to go out and be the salt and light to the world.

Human trafficking exists because of dysfunctional connection. Sex buyers exist because they were lonely, broken boys who did not learn to connect in a healthy manner. That boy who was void of healthy connection grew up to be a man who disconnects with the heart of a woman and his own masculinity, and exploits her body to seek connection in the only way that is known to him, since healthy connection was not modeled to him, and he was most likely abused and rejected in an unhealthy manner. Traffickers lack connection with people because they have been lied to by culture, believing that connection is gained through money and control. Their relationships are domineered by control rather than trust and surrender because they have to disconnect from those who they are abusing in order to use them as objects rather than people. What survivors, captors, and abusers need is family and connection. They need relationships that go deeper than money and selfish gain - relationships that are built upon acceptance and unconditional love.

Jesus modeled the perfect picture of family and connection. He dined with the tax collectors who exploited others for money and selfish gain. He modeled connection and acceptance, while at the same time speaking truth to them so they could be set free. He sat with the prostitutes and those in adulterous relationships and offered them living water, even when what he did was immensely contrary to societal norms. He spoke to the ones with the stones in their hand, reminding them of the brokenness of all humanity and how they must not judge but build connection. Jesus died to connect us to the Father and unify the body of Christ, making Jews and Gentiles one body, one family. Jesus chose to connect with humanity by becoming one of us in human form. He did this to be with us and show us how to connect with others. Jesus did not build walls of self-protection because He knew the value of each person to be loved. He gazed into the eyes of His Father, Creator God, and saw the longing of God to connect with His people and dwell with man. Jesus made Himself vulnerable by loving others even when they hated Him. He suffered rejection, misunderstanding, and separation from His family and friends at the cross, but He chose to wash their feet in the final moments because He knew the unconditional love of the Father. Love looks like arms stretched wide in embrace with nail-pierced hands. Being family to the lonely involves vulnerability, suffering, and being misunderstood. But it is key to connection and it is the way of love that brings true freedom and joy. Jesus faced excruciating pain and anxiety in Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, as the weight of humanity’s suffering and disconnect was placed before Him. Yet He willingly endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him because He valued humanity so much and wanted to obey God. He wanted to see the dream of God’s heart fulfilled: unhindered connection with His creation. God wants to dwell with His people.

When we face the pain of disconnection, we can remember that Jesus did not abandon us or leave us as orphans. Jesus ascended into heaven willingly, knowing the power that would come upon His friends soon. He left in peace knowing that He could be closer to them soon. The Holy Spirit has sealed us with Christ and unified us to each other. Do we see others as a sacred dwelling place of the Spirit of God or do we bring disunity and disconnect through harboring unforgiveness and judgmentalism? Hebrews 12:15 warns us, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” Are we unified in the Spirit? Satan’s ploys are carried out because of disconnect. Disconnection leaves breeches for Satan to kill, steal, and destroy. But when we guard the good deposit, when we focus on becoming the dwelling place of God and walk by the Spirit in humility and long-suffering, the church will be a united force that will raid the gates of hell and take back what the enemy has stolen.

Are we dwelling with God? Are we dwelling with one another? Are we connecting to the disconnected? Who will we embrace with the Father’s love today? Are we living as Jesus – the Suffering Servant who came to seek and save the lost? Let’s invite the one in front of us into the family of God.

Every day we walk by broken orphans in need of adoption. Are we willing to connect and be a family for them? Orphans are not necessarily children who have lost their parents, but any person who does not know their identity as a child of God; any person who is lonely and lacking community, acceptance, and unconditional love found in Jesus and the church. Adoption is not necessarily the legal process of adopting a child, but bringing those in need of family into your range; meeting practical and spiritual needs of those forgotten and pushed aside. Family is not necessarily a father + mother + children, but any person who has a spirit of hospitality – an open heart to receive another into their life, embracing all the inconveniences that come with loving those who can be difficult to love. You can be family to others no matter if you are married or single. God is a Father to the Fatherless, a Mother to the Motherless, through His body: the church: you.

When orphans are unconditionally loved and accepted by the church who is called to the ministry of reconciliation, the value of human life will be seen and restored. The church is called to welcome the outcast. We are to be a healing presence, and we can only do this by walking in abiding relationship with Jesus so we can carry His presence, which has the power to heal. When the church lives to be the hands and feet of Jesus, the spirit of adoption will bring the orphan home and set the lonely into families. Jesus said that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Him. If we give a cup of cool water to a child, it is like we are giving it to Him. How we are treating others is ultimately how we are treating God. Those around us are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus. That person you see across the room is created in the image of God and they are the person who Jesus spilt His precious blood for. Disconnection will be healed and connection will be restored as people live to serve each other; as people view each other in the image of God. The people around us are God’s beloved sons and daughters and we will give an account on how we treat them.

Jesus says if we love Him we will feed His sheep. We are created for connection: connection with God and connection with people. Do we believe that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him? How are we edifying the body of Christ? How are we encouraging the discouraged? How are we speaking identity into the lost? How are we loving those who world despises? The end of the story is that God will dwell with His people. Are we currently walking in fellowship with the Spirit, enjoying the presence of God? Are we living to build connection with God and connection with people? The world is filled with vain pursuits of success, money, reputation, image, and entertainment. Are we willing to spend this life for King and kingdom? Are we willing to stop disconnecting our emotions from the pain of a hurting world in need of restoration and hope and enter into suffering to see the dreams of God fulfilled? Will we choose to intentionally invest in the lives of others, freely giving and receiving love?

Are we willing to give up this “right to protect myself from pain”? Jesus gave of Himself with unwavering devotion. What motivated Him to continually do this was being motivated by a loving devotion to Christ.

Man, I am so so convicted by this message of family and connection because of my humanity. I am so prone to self-protect and disconnect, and I am so prone to disappoint and hurt others by my selfishness. Forgiveness is key in connection, and we must live in dependency upon Christ to love through us because we can’t muster unconditional love up in our own strength. But Christ is the definition of agape love, and He wants to dwell in us and live through us. I am thankful for the conviction I feel because conviction leads to repentance, which brings transformation through the work of God’s enabling grace in us. Praise be to a good, good Father who forgives, unconditionally loves, and empowers those who seek Him.