This week I am part of a sales conference with an emphasis on partnerships. The scope includes engaging in, maintaining, and nurturing the relationships between different parts of a multi-national corporation. The various presentations covered familiar ground until one quote.
“We must work together because I need you to succeed. I also know that you need me.”
Given the fog resident with most of the people in the room – sleep deprivation and drug recovery – I wonder if anyone understood the implications of the statement. We are dependent on each other to win. Knowing, acknowledging this fact positions us to do something about it, otherwise we will almost surely fail.
God can be an ill-fitting piece in the puzzle of our life. God and the rest of my life are separate. I continue to fight my preconceptions about what God can and will do in the relationship he desires to have with me. Do I know God so well, understand his purpose so clearly, that I can anticipate with certainty how and where he is going to act?
My conclusion to my reflection is that I do not understand the partnership God wants to have with me. I recognize that I cannot make it on my own – my failures continue to grow and the prospect for future success based on my abilities is extremely bleak.
Hope comes from the realization that I have something God really values – my love, commitment, and heart. God offers me relationship in exchange. While it may not appear equal, it is important to come back to the comment of the morning. Clearly, I need God. God also wants and needs me. While the partnership is not and will not ever be equal. The good news is that God values this relationship and is very comfortable with what each side brings. As hard as it is to believe, there is hope!
“When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.” (Romans 4.19)
