A life filled with friendships can be complicated.  A good and healthy friendship demands time, energy, compromise, trust, comfort, etc.  Have you ever thought about how much easier life would be without any friends in it? How about it? A sure way to an uncomplicated life would be to remove all close friendships. Right?  NoWrong!
        When you stop and think about it there really are only two options offered: isolation or complication. You can hole up inside your own shell or come out and complicate your neat, orderly life with unpredictable relationships. Unfortunately, love has no other options.
      At the end of the romantic comedy, “Six Days, Seven Nights,” Harrison Ford decides to complicate his simple, controlled life with a love relationship, and we all think he has made a good choice, because we too have fallen for Anne Heche’s bright blue eyes. “Go for it,” we say to him at the predictable feel-good ending.   We yell at the movie screen for Harrison Ford to “complicate his life” with a relationship with Anne Heche—which is what he says to her at the airport in the movie (rent the movie you’ll see what I mean!)  Relationships are complicated.  They are not as neat and orderly as we would like to think.  Being in relationship with someone demands a great deal of effort.  It is not easy.  But it can be rewarding and fulfilling!  
      Ever imagine how complicated God’s life got when He created us? “Now the Lord observed the extent of the people’s wickedness, and He saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry He had ever made them. It broke His heart” (Genesis 6:5-6). Hey, even God has His days.  Yes, God’s life got very complicated when He created us, and that complication culminated in a devastating crucifixion. It took that much for Him to straighten everything out. Yet that didn’t stop Him. So why should we stop at nothing less in order to love each other? Love is worth it.  I believe that love is impossible in isolation. Isolation is a vacuum and love needs a relationship to breathe. Any relationship brings complications; so it’s your choice. Think about where you would be today without the relationships you have established over the years.  Even your very existence is based upon an earlier relationship and because of that relationship you were created in order that you might be given the opportunity to form relationships yourself.  Relationships are vital to life and to living.  Jesus said, “I‘ve come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”  The fullness of life begins with the acceptance of Jesus’ offer to be in relationship with him.
      Now lest you think that others are the source of your complications, think again. Relationships merely show us who we really are. They are like mirrors into our own dysfunction, and that is actually part of our salvation, because we probably wouldn’t see it otherwise.
      So think about all the complicated relationships in your life today and thank God for what they show you about yourself. Ask God to heal you and then put your arms around those complications, because the overcoming power of God’s love is in them, waiting for you, and you wouldn’t want anything less. May we all seek for complicated lives as we grow to know and love one another more and more each day.  Looking forward to establishing a friendship with you!  Come and help us at Mountain View strengthen our relationships with Christ and with one another.  Hope to see you in Church on Sunday.                                                                

Pastor Steve