[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=marlboro&iid=7447577″ src=”a/5/c/0/Indycar_Testing_267d.jpg?adImageId=9540443&imageId=7447577″ width=”234″ height=”160″ /]I have noticed on these cold winter days, the brave few who need tobacco often partake in groups.  It is a rarer sight to see someone shivering alone.  It seems like even the rugged individual instinctively knows some things are better shared. 

Yes, most would agree, “relationships are important.”  What we agree about and what we do in this present world are most often two markedly different things.  We know we are pre-wired for relationships, yet we exert very little effort to make and maintain healthy connections.  We yearn in our hearts for someone to really know us while simultaneously erecting protective barriers against just such knowledge.

We have substituted, “How are you?” “Fine, thank you. And you?”  for substantive conversation. We have exchanged the group party for the challenge of a few intimates.  We have proxied the difficulty of face to face entanglement to the offerings of television drama.  

Jesus’ petition for his disciples, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one–as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.  And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me” (John 17.21, NLT) seems to us to be just as remote a reality as heaven. 

Do you have a group of people who would brave the slice of the North wind for no other reason than to suffer with you?

We need to regain the power of relationship-based living.  First a reconnection with God through his son, Jesus.  Then a real reconnection with others in our lives, family first.  Since each one of us operate from some level of relational brokenness, it will be difficult.  There will need to be a lot of forgiveness extended and received.  I believe the only way for us to be whole is to do so in community, no matter what the Marlboro man says.