One of my congregation (I won't say who, as he doesn't like any limelight) recently a link to a wonderfully reflective thinker: Ron Rolheiser.
Ron has some great things to say about how we approach faith and relationships - especially where our faith and our expectations of others intersect.
You can check out Ron's thoughts here:
http://www.ronrolheiser.com/
An older article of his on the impact of our emotional needs on how we serve others is particularly insightful. It is Ron notes it is good and healthy to look for the touch of others: God created us that way. But if this becomes the basis for why we serve - to have our emotional needs met - we will never mature spiritually. Why? Because we always put a condition on the serving: we will keep saying 'I will love you
and stay with you, as long as there's something in it for me.'
But as Ron says, real growth and maturity serves because it is good and right; not because we get something from it. That's hard, and it is certainly not the message we hear in Twenty-first Western media outlets: but it is very true.John the elder wrote "We love because God first loved us." That, and only that is the true basis for loving and serving: out of gratitude to the One Who loved us totally and gave Himself freely for our restoration.
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