My word for 2019 is Connected. We live in a time when we have more ways to connect but often we’re not connecting meaningfully. Search Google for words like “connected,” or “connection,” or the phrase “how to improve connections” and most of your findings will help you to better understand the Internet, WiFi, and how to improve your Internet speed. Of course, being connected to the grid is certainly a big part of our lives today, but this is not the kind of ‘connected’ I want to focus on this year.
Most people understand that the important things in life are not things at all – they are the relationships we have. Some people come into your life as a blessing. Some come as a lesson. Some people pass through our lives in a shorter time frame than we had hoped to teach us things they never could have taught if they stayed. God has put a desire for relationship in every one of us, a desire He intended to be met with relationships with other people, but most of all, to be met by a relationship with Him. So I want to focus on human connection — the relationship between two or more people that takes place off-line. God created us for relationship. Learning how to handle rejection and not allowing it to challenge your self-worth is one of the greatest skills you can learn in this life.
This form of ‘connected’ is not only nice, it is necessary. The need to be connected to others is one of three essentials for contentment. Though it’s not always easy, we are designed to live in community and in relationship with each other. Life is not about who hurt you and broke you down. It’s about who was always there and who made you smile again. Forget what hurt you in the past but never forget what it taught you. And, while technology has made it easier to connect with others, this doesn’t mean we are building true and meaningful connections or relationships. So I want to find new ways to get connected and to really see what good connection does for me, all of us, and our world.
Are there relationships that if you don’t take sufficient time to invest in (or avoid), will throw a wet blanket on your sense of joy and accomplishment this year? Put your phone away and look someone in the eyes. When you do use technology to connect, make it meaningful and true. Value our true interconnectedness and honor the relationships you have and are creating. Connect with others. It matters. Make sure you love people when they don’t deserve it because that’s when they really need it.
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