Relationships First - Boaz Ko
at 2023-05-09 17:24:59.0 / 868 Hits What is the most important thing in life? I've thought of three things.
The first is the heart, which we discussed last week. And I think the second is relationships.
The world we live in is full of relationships. We have family/blood relations, including married couples, parents and children, brothers and sisters, relatives, and so on; fellowship in the church; relationships with neighbors in our daily lives; business relationships in the workplace; and so on. We are social beings who cannot live outside of this.
One of the words I recently recognized is "dinks". It's an acronym for Double Income, No Kids. The idea is that couples work together and don't have children while watching their parents' generation struggle financially and raise their own children. The implication is that they will be happy if they live well and die well without children. This is a huge contributor to population decline. When I see this generation, I feel like it's another generation that I didn't know before.
Moreover, a news outlet recently raised social issues by introducing the isolation and reclusive lives of young people. According to another source, 510,000 young people in South Korea are in a state of social isolation. When I look back, I realize that these factors have been close to my own family and I see real-life examples around me.As almost everyone knows, the number of people living alone is increasing around the world. I see this as a crisis for the next generation.
Is it a concern to see the same phenomenon happening in our churches and feel a sense of crisis? In the same relationships, there is healing and restoration in the church community because of relationships, and unfortunately, there is hurt and pain because of relationships. This can be an emotional roller coaster as a pastor, and it can be exhausting.
How do we restore ourselves when we seem to get lost in so many relationships and connections? In that sense, I think I need to have a reconciled relationship with the other me (the old me). How can I be in full harmony with my twin, who is the same as me, but different from me, and how can I be in beautiful harmony with my many neighbors, with whom I cannot live separately? These were my questions and meditations recently.
At the end of the day, the answer is: "Love God and love your neighbor" (Luke 10:27). This means that vertical relationships must be addressed first and foremost. I believe that when our relationship with God, the source of life, is restored, our relationship with ourselves and with our neighbors will function properly.