Relative

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My grandpa used to say,

“All things are relative.

It just depends on which side of the locked bathroom door you’re on.

If you’re on the outside, things are a little less relative."

Relativity is a funny thing, in a relative way. Relativity (what seems important to us) changes all the time. The are so many factors that affect whether something seems relative to us at any moment, and the next moment that which was relative may now seem not to be relative due to some newly emerging issue which now seems more relative.

Relativity is so personal and so based upon what I think about things (regardless of what you may think, feel or need). That’s how I know that it’s a concept that’s not of God, because it’s a “me” thing and not a “God” thing or a “thinking of others” thing.

God, however, uses our ever-changing sense of relativity to keep us in check, even when we think that we’re on a roll, spiritually speaking. This happened to me some years ago.

While having breakfast at a local establishment, two senior citizen ladies were dining several tables away from my children and I. Our family was having breakfast before going to G-ball and T-ball games for my kids, so we were all in baseball uniforms or t-shirts and jeans.

God has blessed me in helping me to lose many pounds over the past 15 years - from nearly 300 pounds when I didn’t know Christ down to my current weight. Now understand that I’ve haven’t been walking around thinking I’m a fashion model or something :-). I still have another 40 pounds or so that I’d like to lose, so I’m not a toothpick yet and - even when I get to that weight, Lord willing - I’d like to think that I will remember that it was God who healed me and not me who accomplished anything by myself.

This glorious weight loss testimony, however, was lost on these 2 older women sitting nearby, neither of whom had ever met me. Quite loudly, one woman said to the other, “Look at that! Some people in this town are unbelievable. They're walking around with their stomachs hanging out.” My kids never heard a word of it, busy with their scrambled eggs and all. But I’m sure most of the rest of the lobby heard it.

It was obvious from both the volume and bitterness of the 2 ladies comments that my feelings were not a relative issue to them. But were their feelings relative to me?

How should I respond? My back was to the ladies’ table, so this enabled me to take a few minutes before we got up to leave to commune with our Father about what had happened.

The Lord showed me a vision of me going over to the ladies and quietly kneeling down and humbly sharing the testimony of my healing and subsequent weight loss to this point. In the vision, the 2 women were apologetic, embarrassed and remorseful. “I know that if you’d known all of this”, I saw and heard myself saying in the vision, “That you wouldn’t have said what you said, and I just wanted you to know that I understand”.

Sounds great, right? But there was something about that vision that bothered me. It was the fact that I could stand up and go talk to the ladies, share my story, and make the Truth of my circumstance known to them, and then my feelings would be relative to them. Perhaps we could even have forged a bond through the experience. But - at what cost?

I realized what God wanted to teach me through that vision was that I didn’t need to make my case to those ladies, even through a sincerely humble sharing of my story like the one God showed me in the vision. Those ladies didn’t know my story, but to reveal it to them would have only made them feel bad, and that wasn’t what God - or I - wanted to see happen.

What God wanted me to do was to give Him glory in that very moment for how he had blessed me physically; to worship Him and glorify Him at that moment in response to satan’s attempt to distract me from the wonder of what God has already done for me. To say even one more time, “Father, thank You for seeing what the doctors didn’t, for touching my body and healing me, and for bringing about this weight loss to Your glory." And so I did just that. I thanked Him. I worshipped Him for Who He is. And His glory rested upon me.

In the course of a few short minutes - by stopping and taking a moment to speak directly to my Father and ask Him for understanding - I was transformed by His power from someone who didn’t know how to respond to “an attack," to someone who really wanted those 2 ladies to know that I loved them.

As I stood up and made my way out of the restaurant with my children, I kept looking at the 2 ladies. I wanted them - in such a urgent way - to make eye contact with me so that I could just say “Hi” in a way that let them know I loved them. They didn’t look up, though, and the Lord hadn’t given me liberty to speak to them first, so I went on past them, loving them all the same.

I have been hurt. I have hurt other people. You have known both, too. Jesus wants the wounds in all of our hearts - even those of people whom we have never met or those who innocently attack us - to be healed. He wants our covetousness to be transformed into love. He wants our fear to be defeated and converted into faith. He wants our anger to dissipate into zeal. He wants us all to know the love of our Father, who adores us without ceasing. He wants us all to know Father’s presence, and the healing that is there.

Our Father God has caused me to want these things by teaching me daily and, when I obey Him, I am seeing love and faith and zeal come to pass to His glory.

Grandpa was on to something about things being relative, I guess. But it’s no good to be locked in the bathroom with all its perks all the while knowing that others are outside suffering. Neither is it any good to be locked out of the bathroom, feeling alone and abandoned, feeling as though some have been blessed while we have not.

There’s only one thing that’s good. What’s good is to be free through the power of our Father God. It’s good to be free to come and go as we move through this life at His bidding, and to ever remain in the glorious light of His presence.

Our Father. Our Father. That’s the only “relative” we need. Our Father.


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Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16

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