Discerning the Fruits of Our Relationships

In our lives, I think it is natural for us to care for some people more than we care for others. After all, we cannot be close to everyone we had just met. However, have we ever discerned whether some of our closest relationships prevent us from loving others effectively in our ministries?

The deeper we are into religious life, the subtler the devil’s works are. Throughout salvation history, we have learned that evil often come from something good which is being distorted. It can be the case with our closest relationships. Our closest relationships can be distorted in such a way that we turn our eyes away from God the Creator of these relationships and focus too much on our closest family and friends. The enemy is the happiest when he is successful in turning our focus away from God. For when we start to lose focus, it is when all other fruits of evil starts to occur.

In the case of our relationships, it is often happens that mini-schisms begin to appear in our ministry. We may favor some people over the other too much that we ignore the others. We have clusters of servants who only care for his/her own related ministries but not the others. We begin to lose focus on the bigger picture, that is God himself and his mission that is the salvation of mankind, not just the people who are related to us and our ministries.

We should cherish our relationships, just as we cherish all that God has given to us. However, do not let our relationships turn our focus away from the Source of all Goodness, for apart from him, even the greatest of all relationships will turn sour. May our relationships be offered for the greater glory of God. May Christ himself bless all of our families and friends. May the Eternal Master of the Vineyard himself grow the fruits from our love for each other. AMEN

(Writer’s note: When I say “ministry”, I mean every aspect in our lives. I consider every aspect in our lives as our ministries, because even the smallest event in our lives can be offered for the glory of God)


God bless you all,
Adrianus Indra Setiadi

Visit Indra's blog, "A Moment of Inspiration"