Hello Vine,
Let’s get uncomfortable together—join a Vine Group for the Winter.
Maybe you’ve had this experience before: you have a fight with your best friend, but you feel closer on the other side of it than you were before. For example, I had a close buddy in school who I thought had a manipulative relationship with his girlfriend—I told him he should break it off. I did this in a completely mature and healthy way (ha, kidding). We talked about it, and in reality, it was the largest argument we ever had, spanning the course of days (perhaps weeks). Today, he is married to that girl, with a happy family. He is also one of the very few friends I am in regular touch with today from that season.
Conflict is often the place of relational growth—personal and interpersonal—if we will allow it. Indeed, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). The difficulty is, we don’t usually know how to have healthy conflict as part of a healthy relationship.
Our relationships are a discipleship issue. This is why every Sunday, our liturgy begins with:
“Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says: …You shall love the Lord your God… love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”
Relationships are actually quite difficult to know how to do well. This is especially true of our conflict (or suspicious lack thereof). “Fear not, love all” is The Vine’s tagline, yet how often are we afraid to love a friend or a spouse well by being honest about something that hurt us, or something we disagree about?
Allow me to commend our winter study: Emotionally Healthy Relationships. Over eight weeks, our groups will reflect on Scripture and learn relationship tools to deepen our discipleship, such as:
- Listen Incarnationally
- Fight Cleanly
- Stop Mind Reading
- Community Temperature Reading
I’ll guarantee a few things if you join one of these groups: these tools will challenge you in how you “love your neighbor as yourself”; you will realize they are imperfect; you will be at times uncomfortable; the Lord will be at work as we process them together.
So join me in getting uncomfortable, as disciples of Jesus at The Vine. Through Emotionally Healthy Relationships, let us learn more deeply how to “Fear not, Love all!
God’s peace on your home,
