My life in the gutter

Every couple years I pay someone to clean out my gutters. I know it’s time because we have to exit our front door through a waterfall. Every rain storm brings odd splashing noises on both sides of our townhouse.

Something gets clogged in the gutter or downspout, and the rain gets backed up. It doesn’t flow through the downspout like it’s supposed to. Then it fills up the gutter, causing it to sag ominously under the weight. Finally, the rain from the gutter gets dumped all over the front and back of my house. It’s actually destructive to the house, and to the yard. Yuck!

It seems like my relational life can be like that gutter. Maybe yours is, too. Things get clogged up with stuff like conflict, avoidance, busyness, lack of boundaries, unforgiveness, etc. The relationships don’t “flow” the way we’d like them to. Then our relationships start to sag under the weight they weren’t intended to carry. We wonder how long they can hold up. And things like emotions, reactions, words, and patterns start to spill over in places where we don’t want them. They start to cause long-term damage to us, to others, to our future, and more.

So what’s the solution? We need someone to help us clean out the debris in our relational world. Someone to get up on the roof of our lives, get a good view of the problem, and start clearing out the junk. The good news is God is up for the job. The same God who designed us for life-giving relationships is the same God who has the wisdom and the power to help us change.

Our current series, “iRelate” is designed to help us tune in to God’s design and God’s plans for our relationships. And in the process, to “unclog” those aspects that are causing the problems. We started with our relationship with God. Then we moved on to conflict. Last week was forgiveness. Any of those areas could clog things up, and start to cause long term damage for our life. I hope this series will continue to help you grow in your relational health, and experience more of the life-giving dynamics of relationships, and less of the clogged up, overflowing, damage-causing problems that afflict us all. By the way, this week is about boundaries. I don’t know about you, but I can always use help in this area! Hope to see you Sunday.

- Pastor Mark