Editorial June 14, 1993 Issue

Forging new and better relationships

Russ Gerber

What links us? Geography? History? Culture? Do we find a connection with someone because we happen to work in the same office, attend the same church, or ride in the same car pool? Having such contact does give us both a reason and an opportunity to get to know and appreciate others more fully.

Yet do we make the most of such opportunities, finding and holding in high esteem the unique and upright qualities each of us has to express? Perhaps not. After all, it's not that easy to do if what we're seeing in someone else seems shallow, cold, uninteresting, or unusual. It seems much easier to leave such relations at a superficial level—status quo—and not to expect much more from them.

How many relationships in our lives seem to be stuck at that level? How many of the people we see every day, work with side by side, sit next to in class, or pass by at church do we really know very well? A friend of mine likens it to having a classic book and never reading beyond the title page. In thinking about this, I've found the counsel of a New Testament writer helpful: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (Heb. 13:2).

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