Relationships part 1

 

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. ― Carl Gustav Jung

 

We are continuing to explore our relationships, this divine dance with have with ourselves, others, and God.  Yesterday, in worship, we heard how God fashions forms, loves, and breathes us into being…but didn’t want us to be alone.  The divine design was never individual isolation or to be a silo.  The Creator infused us with a desire for relationship.  Quick aside, this could be because God is in relationship with the Spirit and Christ.  God is in a divine dance with the Word and Wisdom.  The three collaborate and are in cahoots together.  The three playfully interact with each other, so we are created with a factory installed, original operating system to do the same.

 

Today, I want you to remember a friend from your past.  This could be a friend you lived next door to; or someone you met when you moved to a new Middle School; or your colleague at work.  Who was that person you could talk for hours with or go to a concert with or just enjoyed hanging out together?  What were some of the qualities of that person you so enjoyed?  I think back on my group of friends in High School.  I had friends who enjoyed jazz concerts and ones I went with to jam out to 80s hair bands. 

 

I’ll wait while you process the image of me rocking out to an 80s hair band in your mind…but its true and I can tell you the story sometime if you’d like. 

 

Some of my friends loved to talk sports and others were connected to the church.  It was one of my best friends who would introduce me to Gina.  Without Mark, Gina and I might never had met.  Rewind and review friendships and especially the qualities in those friends that drew you to those people ~ are there any similarities?  I tend to be drawn to people who are funny, positive, somewhat sarcastic, and have diverse interests.  My deepest friendships are with people who are inclusive and warm.  I admire those qualities and long to curate and cultivate that way of being in me.

 

Jung is saying when two personalities meet, there is a reaction.  Like when two hydrogens hang out with a molecule oxygen, there is water.  Like when chocolate and peanut butter come together, there is the food of God known as a Reese Peanut Butter Cup.  Like when Lucy and Ethel from I Love Lucy go somewhere, the mayhem is soon to follow ~ smashing grapes or working on an assembly line. 

 

Prayerfully ponder some of the chemical…hopefully comical…reactions that happened with your friends in life.  And if you are still in touch with that high school, college, first-job-friend from the past reach out today and remember the ways you have each left your fingerprints on one another’s lives.

 

Thank you, O God, for those whose connections have contributed to making me, me.  For the “we” moments that remind me of Your divine dance in which we are all called to partake and participate.  Amen.