People

Posted on May 6, 2009 by Buddy Champion

This Sunday we will begin a new series called “Relationship Status.”  Each week we will explore biblical relationships with the goal of enhancing our personal relationships.

Relating to people is just a part of life. If you live a typical lifestyle, you can’t avoid them.  Some people choose to live like hermits by moving to a mountain cabin in order to avoid dealing with people. Such isolation is just not an option for most of us.

People are all around us!  Some are such a blessing while others can turn into your “thorn in the flesh!”  Ecclesiastes 4:10 (NIV) tell us “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”  All of us fall…in fact when you work with people sometimes you fall because someone pushes you down.

I remember John Maxwell saying that “leadership is lonely so you better remember why you are there.”  When you walk with God and step out against the current, you can anticipate someone trying to push you down…yes, notice “when you walk with God!”  On a number of occasions I have been the target of that downward push. It doesn’t matter that I am in God’s will, being obedient, working as hard as I can and being sweet. Someone always comes along with a push.

So who gets me up?  Home. I can go home and find a loving place filled with people that believe in me.  They pick me up. Staff. Some are intuitive enough to check on me and encourage me when they know I am being shot at from all sides.  Deacons.  Words cannot explain what it means to know there are 60 Godly men standing on all sides of you when things get tough. They provide strength and courage.  Friends. A few God-given people that love you…no matter what.  While one side of the relationship coin tries to push you down, stay focused on the flip side of the coin that provides daily “pick-me-ups.”

Everybody will fall. You are going to fall. Who will pick you up?  Probably some of the same ones that you have picked up.