A Personal Relationship 

   Throughout our lives we establish many personal relationships with others.  Some are deep and abiding, some are shallow and selfish.  But there is one personal relationship that needs careful attention and devotion above all others: our relationship with Christ.

   In this life I think the closest we can come to understanding what a personal relationship should be is that of a sacramental marriage, an unselfish, giving love for each other.  One that doesn’t demand, expect, or condition, but desires only the good of the one we love.

   The perfect example of such love is our Lord, Jesus Christ.  “No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15: 13).  This is what Jesus did for us because of His love for us.  The Son of God chose to become one of us to save us from our sins, “…he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2: 8).

   What do we return for such love?  We often treat God as a heavenly ATM machine.  We enter our pin and expect the answer to our prayers without regard to whether what we ask is in accord with His will.  We tend to ignore His presence except when we need something from Him.  That is not a personal relationship, it is a selfish attempt to use God for our purposes.

   If we want the relationship we need with Christ we must submit ourselves to Him and His will.  We must surrender ourselves to Him, trusting Him in all things.  Especially when life is difficult and our cross is heavy, we must place ourselves in His hands.  “Anyone who wishes to follow me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matt 16: 24).  The cross we carry can never be greater than the cross He carried for us.

   I’ll close with a little prayer of surrender to Christ.  “O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!”  This is the personal relationship we must have with our Lord, a relationship of total surrender to Him.