Hear From a Joe – What Real Relationships are
What makes you want to be friends with someone? Have dinner with them? Go on a trip with
them? Start a business with someone? Do business with someone or a company? What makes you
want to really DO life with someone? To experience joy and pain, and suffering, and love and sacrifice
and hurt and loyalty and even heartbreak because of their actions or because of their words? What
makes you want to have a relationship (working or personal) with someone when so much could go
wrong?
Relationships are a part of life that cannot be avoided. Not that we should want to avoid them.
As humans, we tend to gravitate toward those who are like us in a variety of different ways. Shared
interests, experiences and abilities are all ways by which we tend to find those who we have
relationships with. However, I often wonder if that (shared interests, experiences, abilities) is enough to
make us desire to continue to grow those relationships? Or should there be something more?
Personally, I know a lot of people that share an interest in something like I do. Choose a fall
Saturday and you’re likely to find any number of stadiums packed with 90,000+ people gathered to
watch their favorite football team in action….and maybe even hundreds of thousands of folks outside
the stadium who don’t have a ticket. (What? My chair is comfortable, and the bathroom is clean at
home…If I don’t have a ticket, no thanks…but I digress). I can find plenty of people who grew up in a
similar manner as I did. And I can even find a few that have the weird ability to touch their tongue to
their nose like me (gross, I know, my wife tells me all the time!). But none of those things alone are
enough to make me want to invest time in a relationship with those folks.
What then, could drive us to put ourselves “out there” enough to have a relationship in which
we give of ourselves unselfishly? One where we serve one another? Where we want the best for the
other person or persons even at our own expense? One where we might lose someone we love dearly?
What could possibly make us be willing to do such a crazy thing? Now perhaps there are people that
give so unselfishly of themselves that you want to be around them for the benefit you might receive.
While that makes sense on a surface level, we all know that eventually that selfishness will eventually
reveal itself and usually end the relationship, because it really wasn’t one to begin with.
Common interests, experiences and abilities are not a wrong way to go about building a
relationship. In fact, I’d like to talk to you about the most important thing we can have in common with
someone. Something that can nurture an enduring selfless relationship with another person or group of
people. A shared belief in Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that He gave to those who believe in Him
creates a bond among people that is unmatched anywhere on this earth. When we follow His
instruction and His example, we can desire to put others needs ahead of our own. We can serve others
unselfishly. We can truly be happy for others when something goes well for them. We can forgive
someone when they do something that hurts us. We can give grace to someone who treats us poorly,
because Jesus offers us that grace first.
This common belief in Christ is what brought us together as a “framily” (that’s a smushing up of
friends and family). We share not only that common belief but the instruction from Jesus himself to
love one another. He tells us that when we love one another we show others that we truly are His
children. We have a trust among us that has been built at first upon common interests but deepened by
a common Savior. We build each other up, take care of one another when one is hurting and walk
through the ups and downs of life side by side. Are we perfect? Absolutely not, we are flawed people
who mess up constantly. So, we offer one another grace and forgiveness because we know that each of
us wants the best for one another.
These are the guiding principles in our organization. Do we want your business? Yes, of course,
that is ultimately how we feed our families. However, financial stability is not what we are seeking
through this business. We seek first to please God with our actions. With that in mind, we will follow
the biblical principle of tithing what He provides for us and will give 10% of every dollar that comes into
our business to serving Him. We desire to serve people through our business. We desire to help those
who are unable to help themselves. We want to grow our business and ministry by building a
relationship with you. A REAL relationship, not just a client-company one. We want to know your
birthday and your anniversary so we can celebrate with you. We want to know your kid’s birthday and
what sports they play. We want to help you when you have a problem (business or personal). Yeah….
for real, that’s who we are. We want to serve you. We want to give you grace when you mess up. And
we pray that when we mess up (and we will) that you will tell us, and hopefully offer us some grace as
we work to fix it. How much do we want to best for you? If we aren’t helping you out, then we’ll tell
you to do something different (even go with another company if that is what is best for you). Again…for
real, that’s who we are.
Let me close with a brief story. I have been a pastor for about 15 years now, serving a couple of
churches in Carrollton, GA. There was a time when I was at my first church that I had a decision to
make. One of my best friends went to church there and things just weren’t going well. She was
unhappy, I was stressed because she was unhappy and there was just a cloud hanging over our church
because of it. Ultimately, I had to tell her that she needed to go somewhere else, because we just
couldn't fix it. What? How does that make sense? In a church growth model…. well, you get it, it’ll
never be “successful.” But it had to happen. She needed to go, so she could grow and flourish and so
that we could grow and flourish. When I told her she needed to go, you’d have thought I kicked her dog.
(I didn’t, I promise) Although she wasn’t happy with me, eventually she realized that it was indeed the
best thing to do. And what happened? She got to the right place where she could grow and serve the
church, and the cloud was removed from over our church, and we saw growth as well. And despite
what she thought I had done to her dog (I kid) we are still very good friends and love one another like
siblings. We wanted the best for one another, were honest with each other and gave grace, and worked
together to find a solution.
We will do that for you. Our faith in Christ leads us to follow his example. He loved us so much
that He gave up His life for ours. So that we might have a full and abundant life and live eternally with
Him in heaven. We will serve you; we will help you and we will celebrate with you. We will seek what is
best for you and we will be honest with you if we can’t serve you in a way you deserve. We will mess
up, we’re human. And we’ll ask for forgiveness and offer the same to you when necessary. It’s the only
way we know to build a successful relationship.
Micah
