In Real Life

I'm finally laying my Keurig to rest... and they're sending me a new one for free!

Today, I'm going to be a little more narrowly focused. Because some stuff is riding on my heart, and I want to let it loose in these five minutes. Because I hope that at least someone will read these words and let them ride on their own heart.

In real life, people are hurting. We lose jobs, face death, have bad days, and get bad grades. We hurt.

In real life, those who are hurting simply long for someone to care. Someone to listen as we ramble on about how lame our boss is, how illogical our school is, or how we're having a bad hair day.

In real life, people don't just want you to build relationships with them so that anything. I'm learning right now to build relationships so that I can evangelize. Except I'm not sure about that premise.

Because in real life, people want relationships simply because of the fact that they care about someone. Not because the relationship is the means to an end. Even if it is an end as glorious as knowing and loving God.

I want to love people and build relationships with them because I care about them and do genuinely love them. Because that's how real life works. Not because the newest evangelistic "strategy" tells me that the only "effective" way to reach people is to love them (and if by "reach," you mean bring them to church to increase attendance numbers).

In real life, it just doesn't work that way.

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Today's post was a part of The Gypsy Mama's Five Minute Friday.