People not Expereinces, Relationships not Events

Looking back over my entry from yesterday, it dawned on me that I wrote more about the events and experiences I had rather than the relationships and people. Granted, the events and experiences are filled with others, but it is possible to miss what makes an event and experience so important.

For example, have you noticed that watching a comedy like The Office is so much funnier when you watch it with someone than when you watch it all alone? Sarah and I watch this show every week and even own the show on DVD (I think she has watched every season we own about 5 times during the course of ironing clothes). We watch it and always laugh. But what makes the office so funny to me is sharing the experience of watching it with her. We laugh together, we quote lines to each other, we muse about the episodes together.

My life has been rich and full because of the people I've shared my experiences with. Experience and events are merely the backdrop of life. Third grade is so prominent in my mind because of the relationships I had with Mrs. Simmons, Brian Cundiff, Jeremy Engel, and others. College at Ouachita was such a powerful experience in my life because of the people that populated my life at that time. Mark, Brian, Jaycob, Andi, Shannon, Pam, Cristina, Jimmy, the Watsons, the Runyans, the Garlins, the Poes, the Calhouns, and so many more.

My life is rich and full today because of the relationships I have. My incredibly awesome wife Sarah, my amazingly fun and funny kids Abby and Matthew, my family, church family, and friends. They all make my life what it is.

Of course my most important relationship is with the One True Triune God. God is my Father, Christ is my Savior, the Holy Spirit is my ever-present Helper. I am who I am because of my relationship with Him.

Experiences and events are the staging of life. Relationships, good and bad, are what life is made of. To ignore the relationships and focus only on the events is like going to Hamlet or MacBeth, looking at the stage props and walking about before a single charater enters the stage. If you do that, you've missed the whole point. And to focus just on the events and not the people in life is to miss the whole point of life.