When you first meet someone, you have no idea where that relationship will go. You start with saying hi when you pass them on your way to class, then you move up to sitting with them in the caf. If there is a connection, you might start hanging out with them on the weekends. Soon you might be inseparable, unable to make a full experience without sharing it with the other person. And you never even saw it coming when you shook their hand for the first time.
That's how it is with Christ. A relationship with Christ doesn't start with a spiritual high and empty commitments. That's the spiritual equivalent of drunken sex after a wild night of partying. Knowing God is a surprising journey that starts with a simple hello. It's not about looking ahead and saying, "I want my relationship with God to be at such and such a point in one month." You wouldn't do that with a friend--that's not the point of friendship. The point of friendship is living in the moment and enjoying every moment with that person. The focus is not getting closer, it's being close. Everything else naturally falls into place.
I've been entering into a relationship with God ever since I climbed Mount Massive last August. That was the turning point of my life. He called me, and I answered. I began a relationship with Christ, but that beginning is over. I'm not entering into anything with him. Now I am in that relationship, and I'm falling more in love with Jesus every day.
This is what it looks like. It looks like the perfect peace of knowing God has your life in your hands and you don't need to worry. You don't need to worry about a thing. It looks like the love of sacrificing yourself for your friends. It looks like the patience to deal with people you don't like. It looks like the ability for sin to lose its appeal. It looks like a full, joyful, FREE life.
