Is All Real Joy in Trusting and Loving Relationships?

Are trusting and loving relationships with God, self, family members and others the source of all real joy and inner-peace during our time on earth and forever after? – – – In short, Yes. That is why our purpose of all that we do with the Christ Centered Sports and Games Activities and Clubs, is to help each of us build and maintain more trusting and loving relationships. 

I love the following excerpt on page 2 of the book “Relationships ..Self, Family, God” by Paul H. Dunn and Richard M. Eyre: 

“One clear soft evening in autumn, beneath the lofting elms that shrouded their street, she slipped her hand into his and whispered above the stillness, “Daddy… what is the most important thing of all?”  It was a silly question in a way…a profound one in another… She knew it was…but it was a night for questions like that….they had time. The father thought as they walked , for several silent minutes, and then he gave his daughter the right answer in one word; “Relationships.” The thought had never come to him like that before, yet as he said it, he knew it had a kind of inspiration and his mind formulated questions to teach his daughter what he felt. “Can you think of a single better measurement of happiness than the number and depth of the relationships as person has?” The moonlight caught her hair as her head turned, “Certainly not money… not possessions…maybe testimony and conviction that God lives…but that is a relationship, isn’t it… with God?”  His thoughts rushed to catch hers, “What is that relationship…with God….what is its nature?”  “Parent-Child.”   “You know, we say it so often…I wonder if we really hear it. Does the phrase ‘I am a child of God’ stop in your mind as it goes through your ears?  And how many do you think really believe the phrase…. (Assuming that understanding it is prerequisite to believing it)?”   “Not many, Daddy…. If we did we would spend more time seeking to strengthen and improve that one relationship.”  He nodded, then went on, teaching himself as he taught her….”Is there anything you can take with you….from this life to the next other than the relationships you have formed?”  She paused for some time….formulating what she thought was a full answer, “To be able to retain our relationships beyond this earth must be our greatest blessing….but there is more that we can take….Knowledge, judgment, capacities….all that we become internally while we are here.”  They walked on in silence for a few moments and then her definition of “relationships” expanded to match his and she went on, “Relationships with self….that’s what all of these things are.”  From that plateau, he reached again, “Is there anything else? I mean if a person was suddenly voided of all the relationships he had….would there be anything left?”  “No….nothing….except maybe the potential to build new relationships.”  Now their thoughts leap-frogged past each others. Her answers went beyond his questions and bounced his mind into deeper perspectives. “Can’t almost everything be translated into a relationship….our problems, our fulfillments, our concerns and worries, our joys and pleasures…. Don’t all stem from one relationship or another…. And if they do, why don’t we focus more effort on relationships?”  “I don’t know, Daddy….I guess partly because we all work so hard on achievement….on getting things done and on gaining material things. That word is really the villain, isn’t it?…. “Things”….things are the antithesis of people; and that’s the choice we face so often….people or things….relationships or achievements” 

Clearly, when we ponder deeply on it, we realize that nothing brings more joy in this life and beyond than the quality of our relationships with God, self, family members, and others, and therefore nothing is worth putting more effort into studying about and praying about and pondering over.  I am convinced that real joy from good relationships is at least 10 times better than any fun, thrills, worldly pleasures, fame, wealth, good looks, or anything else. 

Barbara Ballard taught this great truth:  “That which lasts the longest is the most important”. There is certainly nothing we can take with us, from this life on earth to our eternal life beyond, other than the relationships we have formed?”