Connections

For a week or so now I have been thinking about this past year and contemplating the upcoming year. The one thing that I am certain of is that I have few answers to all of the questions that are swirling in my mind. Late this evening as I was once again running things through my mind I had a thought, an idea, an inspiration even – or maybe it was just perspiration.

As I look back on 2008 I wonder if this past year was ‘the year of the head’.

Let me explain a little. As we relate to one another there are multiple connections that are made. Some are cerebral – head connections – which are more really based in communication of knowledge and education. There are connections of the heart – heart connections – which are more feeling based, emotional, and often deeper and longer lasting than head connections. There are also physical connections, where we stand beside one another and labor together at a given task. For these connections there is a definite end product – whatever we were working on together – but there do not need to be any heart or head connections. Physical connections appear to me to be the easiest to make but ultimately are the shallowest of connections. Don’t get me wrong, physical connections are vitally important in the life of a church, but unless they are physical connections made in close proximity with others and involve either heart or head connections they are rarely that deep. There were numerous physical connections made through the renovation of the Kingdom Kids facility and some of those may have developed further, but for those who spent a morning or even a day working beside others they made some connection, but rarely deep connections.

If we consider head connections next and continue to use the renovations as our illustration then maybe you were involved in some of the discussions and debates over paint color, or stage position or other such aspects of the design or implementation. Your connections moved from just being physical to being cerebral – you will have connected with others on two levels. The relationships will be stronger than those discussed earlier, but it is rare that lifetime accountability-partner type relationships will be formed based solely on these interactions.

For the deepest connections to occur there needs to be more than just working together, there needs to be more than even discussion and debate, there needs to be a connection of the heart. Connections of the heart are the strongest bonds between us. Connections of the heart will cause a mother to give no thought to sacrifice whatever is needed to help their child, or for one brother to drop everything and rush to the hospital to be with his sibling when accidents or calamity strikes. Connections of the heart will cause people to do the craziest things, will cause incredible self-sacrifice, will drive one person to walk through whatever pain or hardship is required to see their friend helped. This is the connection that David and Jonathon had in the Old Testament. David loved Jonathon like a brother and would do anything he could to help him, even at great risk to himself.

I think that in 2008 we spent a reasonable time in physical relationships with the renovations and activities like StreetReach. I think we spent a lot of time in head relationships as we studied things like the “Truth Project” and other such head-knowledge activities during our Sunday morning sermon series. Both of these activities were good and accomplished a lot of beneficial things, however I wonder if we were a little light on the third aspect of connections – heart connections. Maybe this is just for me, maybe no-one else feels this way.

I have a sense that the incoming year will be a tremendous opportunity for us to develop heart connections with one another, however, this will take considerable work and even risk as we make the deepest connections with others, but as we make those connections we need to realize that they will last a lifetime.

As I said at the beginning of this piece, I do not claim to have all the answers, but I wanted to share what was on my heart and see if it resonates with yours. Are you ready for the New Year? Do you feel that 2008 was a year when you made a lot of physical and head connections at Mt Oak but were missing something? As you have read this did something inside you say, “That is what I want, heart connections!”? Are you willing to make heart connections?

I am.

I am reminded of an old phrase which says, ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’ This entire message may be just personally for me, but I believe that I need to make heart connections this incoming year.

Are you willing to join me?