Steph's Reality Blend

**I wrote the majority of this post about 4 weeks ago and decided to put the finishing touches on it tonight.** Relationships are hard, right? In a recent discussion (of which I was a part), the question was asked, "Does brokenness in relationship require sin to be involved?" and we, as a group, concluded that yes, on some level, at some time, sin must be involved in order for brokenness to take place. Let's think through this, briefly. In the case of accidental grievances (like miscommunication, which comes in many forms), the grievance itself does not necessarily break relationship. I can think of many-a-time when I've understood something differently from another, and we were never at odds, and it was cleared up without hurt feelings and broken trust. But when we react in selfishness/anger/assumption to the miscommunication, that's when relationships are broken. Our expectations are not met. Our feelings are hurt. How about when really tough things happ...

I had time last night to pick up J. I. Packer's Knowing God that's been waiting on my nightstand the last few months. Funny how the bookmark opened the pages to display truths that are very relevant in my/our lives right now, regarding the importance of God's truth and the comfort in hard times. He's got short sections about how God is unchanging: God's life does not change, God's character does not change, God's truth does not change: "People sometimes say things that they do not really mean, simply because they do not know their own mind; also, because their views change, they frequently find that they can no longer stand behind things that they said in the past. All of us sometimes have to take back our words, because they have ceased to express what we think; sometimes we have to eat our words because hard facts refute them . The words of human beings are unstable things. But not so the words of God. They stand forever, as abidingly valid expres...