Relational Dimensions of Fully Flourishing Life

A couple days ago we talked about Fully Flourishing Life in Jesus Christ. Today it behooves us to think about the relational/communal dimensions of new life in Christ. What is the relationship between my experience of fully flourishing life in Christ and your experience of it? Can a person experience the life that God intends outside of relationship? Is our experience of God’s fully flourishing life somehow linked with our sensitivity to, and ministry with, others? How privatized can the experience of life in Christ be? How communal should it be? Miroslav Volf has written a book titled Exclusion and Embrace, in which he talks about the human tendency to fear and loathe "the other," because the self is under threat of disappearance, loss, and death. In response to the fear of losing our "self," we respond to others in one of four ways. We try to conquer then, or we isolate ourselves from them, or we relate with them contractually, or we surrender to them (meaning we capitulate, but don't enter into true mutual relationship).

Volf suggests that this impacts our participation in "life flow," meaning that when we respond in one of these four ways based on our fear, we block the possibility of life flowing from us to others, and from them to us. He encourages us to embrace others with love. Vitally important, however, is that the love we must embrace them with is not our own love, but God's love flowing through us. It's suicidal to try to give our own love to others. We can only love others when we move into and get hold of God's love for ourselves. We must love out of God's supply of love and life. When we do this, then we can give the gift of true God-love, and we know that we are doing this when we see that the other person is coming alive and thriving. A core dimension of truly flourishing life in Christ, therefore, is that we help other people blossom, flourish, and thrive. Ask yourself, therefore: Do I help other people thrive? The life that God intends for all of us cannot be experienced or shared outside the scope of relationships, nor at the expense of other persons.