With

Independence is as American as apple pie. But as we bite into it I wonder if it will not turn to rot in our mouth.

We were not meant for independence, and self-reliance is over-rated. If we bear the image of our creator (and we do) then we are meant for relationship.

Kitchen tables and campfires.
Sleep-overs and girls-night out.
Rainy afternoons and board games.

It's true we are meant to be free, but independence is a distortion of freedom. Some of the most enslaved people I've met have been fiercely independent. Fear of abandonment, pride and self-reliance have built a prison they call a fortress. They believe they are safe, but really, really they are just in a jail of their own making.

Then there are those who live on the margins. They are unseen, unloved, forgotten, and unkown. But most of all they are alone. Alone. Not independent. Not free. Alone.

Independence is over-rated.
We were meant for community.

The beginning of the Story starts as God walks WITH Adam and Eve in the Garden.

The end is the same.

Revelation says, "Now the dwelling of God is WITH man and he will live WITH them. And he will dwell among them and they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them...

WITH is the bookend - the beginning and the end, and the purpose in between. God intends to know us, and be known by us. He intends for for us to know each other. WITH is woven throughout the fabric of history...

Broken and then Restored.

Have you ever wondered what it means to be restored?

John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was WITH God, and the Word was God."

The Word: that's Jesus. God in the flesh, dwelt among us. Emmanuel. When Jesus came he came to be WITH us, to restore us and redeem us from the jail of our own making, and the jails we did not make at all, yet find ourselves in. There is freedom in WITH. There is power in WITH. It is the power of God.

We are meant to be in relationship WITH God. We are meant to be in community in WITH each other. And when we reach out beyond our self-absorbtion to walk WITH those who live on the margins God is honored. Because when we walk WITH, we become imitators of God. True followers.

Be careful here; a danger lurks. Just as independence is not freedom, neither is near the same as WITH. Near is a cheap substitution for WITH.

Near is about proximity.

WITH costs. Jesus was Immanuel, God WITH Us, and it cost him his life. His life.

If you think you know a thing about WITH, yet it has not cost you it is not WITH. Do you want intimacy in your marriage? WITH is going to cost you.
Do you want to know the heart of your child? WITH is going to cost you.
Do you want your life to be a story worth telling? WITH is going to cost you.

It always does.

But a story WITH is the only story worth telling. It is the Story, in fact...and so all great story, must be the same story.

Walk WITH God.
Walk WITH Others.
Walk WITH the Least of These.

"See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hand..." God said this to Israel, His People. He says it to us as well. We are the people that he loved, that he remembered, that he restored. He wanted to be WITH us. And so he engraved my name (and yours) on palms of His hands. So deep, in fact, did he engrave my name that it pierced His flesh. I think it may have looked like a...

A Spike.
A Tree.
A Hill where he died as soldiers mocked and crowds jeered.

WITH is a priceless gift.