Intimacy is a brave act!

Followers of God often struggle against the idea of what is considered normal in their culture as they try to change the world.

It wasn’t normal for fishermen in Judea to drop their nets and go follow a rabbi. It wasn’t normal for a prophet to lay on top of a widow’s dead boy and raise him back to life through God intervening. It wasn't normal for a guy to build an ark in the middle of a desert. It wasn't normal for a grieving widow to leave her country where her family had plenty of money and follow her mother-in-law, who had nothing, to a strange land. It wasn't normal for an unknown woman to have free access to the king, eventually interceding for her people.

All of the people who performed these unusually brave acts did so because they were in deep relationship with God. 

When you get right down to it, there is always a price to pay for deep relationship. And these followers of God (like Abraham, Sarah, Israel, Moses, Noah, Deborah, Ruth, and Esther to mention a few) were willing to pay it.

Intimacy isn’t always easy. 

At the very least, there is the sacrifice of time – spending time with the other person, deferring to the other person, listening to the other person simply so that we can get to know them better. It is getting lost in the other. At the end of the day, deep relationship doesn’t happen without sacrifice.

On the other hand, there are privileges. 

The privilege of another being known to you and you being known by the other. Walls come down, fears are overcome in the light of deep relationship. Brave things begin to happen.

How can we change the world without intimacy? 

With deep relationship changing the world is no longer a burden. With deep relationship changing the world is no longer mind-boggling. With deep relationship changing the world becomes fueled by love instead of guilt. With deep relationship changing the world rings true in the experience of those we are trying to lift up because they see genuine concern instead of obligation. 

With the intimacy of deep relationship, brave things begin to happen!

Photo Credit: www.hislovingembrace.wordpress.com