I have more walls in my life than a complicated maze.  I wall out my employees, my family, strangers, fellow church members, and every other soul I encounter in my life.  I do all of this in the name of self preservation.  I figure no one wants to hear my problems or tales of my mental craziness and I KNOW on most days I don’t want to hear theirs.  Yet, I call myself a Christian; a leader that others must look to for guidance; a person whose very existence and belief system depends on relationships.  Go figure.

The Gospel in a nutshell is about God having so much desire to be in a relationship with a messed up creation that He surrendered His ONLY son to become our cleansing sacrifice.  I am not doing that for anyone with my daughter.  Good thing I’m not God, huh?  As a leader who struggles to emulate God-like love and the sacrifices of Christ, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t often reflect much of the sacrificial, relational love of God evidenced through the life of Jesus.

What does this post title have to do with any of that? Someone I should call friend but who is more of an acquaintance is hurting today as their life changes.  A career is being altered.  A home is being transformed.  Beliefs are being questioned.  Friends are dropping away.  Perhaps, it seems today that people who live in glass houses are throwing stones at those who understands the relational God.  People who know what it is to see the face of God are hurting while I and others are scribbling in the dust with our heads down. We shield ourselves behind our walls, fearful to go out in the street beside our brothers and sisters.  It is hard to reach out, to shield, to be relational, to be a living witness of Christ’s love when the walls are so many, and in many cases, so irrelevant.

So, today I give you a challenge as I give it to myself.  Do you want to be a conduit of the grace of God? Then work to become the relational reflection of Christ. If you aren’t willing to do it for you, then do it for those who face the stone throwers.