Day 103: The Resource of Relationship

DAY 103

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

WEEK FIFTEEN: THURSDAY 25 JUNE 2020

The Resource of Relationship

“We typically use the term ‘natural resources’ to refer to things like water, forests, and land deposits containing minerals and fossil fuels. We could make a compelling argument, however, for an even more precious natural resource: human relationships … . Curiously, it’s often a crisis … that strengthens our relational wealth by drawing us closer together. In the aftermath of 9/11 people didn’t want to be alone or apart from loved ones…What makes the coronavirus pandemic such a different situation sociologically is that we’re actually being asked to push away from one another. Social distancing requirements physically separate people, just as quarantine measures isolate them. Both deliver stress to the very social connections we depend on.” - Editorial in the current issue of a Christian magazine

“Curiously, it’s often a crisis that strengthens our relational wealth.” The phone rang late at night on the east coast as a friend of many years called from the west coast to tell me that three of their four adult children had been in an accident, two were gone, and the third was hanging on by a thread. My wife and I discussed it briefly, and I was on a plane the next morning. It never crossed my mind not to go. I lived with this pastor and his family a semester and a summer on an Indian reservation while in college and had ongoing personal contact throughout the years. This was a relationship resource of immense value to me and has continued to be so to this day.

Relationships as a relational resource: in the midst of the worldwide pandemic, take an inventory of your ‘natural resource of relationships’:

• Immediate family -
• Extended family tree -  
• Circle of friends -
• *Church family -
• Workplace -
• Neighborhood -
• Other -

     *‘Body of Christ’ – church relationships are unique, for they will last into eternity.

Reflective question: What relationships in your church are of great value to you? Elsewhere on your lists above? Give them a call and let them know it.

Reflective Scripture: John 13:35 – “’By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another.’”

Reflective hymn:

“Bind Us Together” – Bob Gillman (1946-    )

Bind us together, Lord; bind us together with cords that cannot be broken.

Bind us together, Lord; bind us together, Lord; bind us together with love.