[2020 Vision] Rest-olutions and Resolutions, Part 3. Meaningful RelationshipsSample

A Higher Connection

In Acts 20, Paul was on a missionary journey. He had an opportunity to stop at the port of Miletus, so he asked his friends from Ephesus to meet him there. Paul had previously been in Ephesus for three years, and he had started a church there. So the Ephesian elders traveled a good way, and came to the port to see him. They gathered, knelt, prayed, and cried together. Paul told them, “You will never see my face again.” That’s why they cried. 

Now there are very few times when you will never see someone’s face again. You can be on Facebook or Facetime and see them, they could fly to you, or you could fly to them. Of course there will be times in which friends go to heaven, and we will not see their faces again. My grandmother said, “I’ve got more friends in heaven now than I do on earth.” So, there are those breaks where tears do fall, when people go away, and we feel that ache in our hearts. 

Paul and the elders had a spiritual connection. This is the first quality of a meaningful relationship. Do you see what they did? They knelt and they prayed. That is what meaningful relationships are based on. They are not based on the fact you went to the same college or have a lot of things in common. You can comment about it and have a great time during football season talking about your school, but that's not enough. You can chat about his wife looks like your wife, and you kind of look like him, and you all go to the same places, live in the same neighborhood, vacation in the same spots, have the same hobby, and like the same sports team, and do the same thing. That's not enough to build a true, meaningful relationship. It will help, possibly, but it's not enough.

A meaningful relationship is a higher connection. We have a spiritual connection to God and we are brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s a whole different level of friendship, isn’t it? 

Paul and the elders knelt, they prayed, and they cried. They knew Paul so well because they’d been with him so long. They’d been in a place there where their hearts had really connected and they had emotional trust. 

That is a friend: somebody who is there for you and really cares for you.