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Written by Gabrielle Guthrie for “See, there’s this thing called biology…~insanitybytes” @ https://insanitybytes2.wordpress.com/

Original post found @ https://insanitybytes2.wordpress.com/2024/04/04/cant-we-all-just-get-along/

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

04ThursdayApr 2024

Posted by insanitybytes22 in Uncategorized

Tags blogging, culture, dysfunction, faith, insanitybytes22, life, opinion

Why are we all so relationally dysfunctional? Do you ever ask that? Like, people can’t stay married, they abandon their children, there is drama in workplaces, churches often split, and politics are a complete train wreck. From the evidence on the ground, it appears that we are quite challenged when it comes to knowing how to relate to one another in a healthy, functional way.

Don’t even get me started about the evidence of chronic human dysfunction that presents itself all over social media…..

All in good humor here, but I have had to ask such things on account of a series of unfortunate circumstances making everything my fault, always. Oldest child, convenient scapegoat, lots of dysfunction. I’m not complaining at all, I think that’s become a genuine gift today. There’s an old joke about when people break up and they try to protect someone’s feelings by saying “It’s not you, it’s me.” Yes well, I’ve spent much of my life going in the opposite direction completely convinced, it’s me, I’m the problem. Believe it or not, this kind of introspection is far preferable to just blaming everyone else and being unwittingly trapped in our own toxic behavior patterns.

I had a marvelous revelation many years ago about the perfection of the Lord, about how He freely gives us everything and asks almost nothing of us in return, and a huge bunch of us can’t even get along with Him! He sticks closer than a brother, His laid down His very life for us, He’s the Great Physician who heals us. I could go on and on, the point being, He is perfect, Holy, just, and full of grace, and people still relate to Him poorly if not just outright rejecting Him!

People are without excuse, but in our defense, we often have built up terrible perceptions of God because we’ve gone and remade Him in the image of people, relationally dysfunctional people. I like how the Bible says in Matthew 7:11, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” God is even better than the best parent we might encounter here on earth. And we need to be reminded of that truth early and often because all we really know and experience all around us is varying degrees of chronic relationship dysfunction.

I genuinely believe the cure for all this strife is spending more time with Jesus.

Some people need to engage in more introspection and figure out where their wounds came from, what strongholds they have built up like scar tissue. Others probably need to take their eyes off of themselves for a moment. That’s an interesting little dance there, a balancing act trying to develop greater self-awareness without becoming self-absorbed and self-consumed.

Anyway, those are my thoughts today. Many times this week I’ve wanted to say, that the cure for what ails you is to just take your eyes off yourself for a few hours. Look at the people all around you, they are struggling with very similar things. Or perhaps, the cure for what ails you is to just develop the tiniest bit of self-awareness so you stop making the same old boring mistakes and try out some new ones.

And for me, I just need the constant reminder that relationship dysfunction is simply our state of being, it is “normal,” in the sense of being common and prevalent, the rule, not the exception. It isn’t “normal “at all, it’s bloody stupid and wrongheaded, but it is what it is.

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P.S. (from bruce)  When there is no other place to turn…turn to God !!  If you’re not a “born again” Christian, is the Holy Spirit urging you to open this link ??  Here is the truth about how God’s grace is received to become a Christian in God’s eyes; through understanding and obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ…   https://godsmanforever.com

To my brothers and sisters in Christ, please feel free to share this message of the cross with those in need…

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