on relationships

during my teenage and college years, i always had friends around me. it wasn't difficult to find to a group of friends to hang out with and identify with. to me, friends were an abundant... resource.[this terminology reflects how i took relationships for granted and how little value i placed them with...more on this later]

now that i've graduated college, married, and have had a child, many people have entered and left my life. Facebook gives the illusion that these people have NOT left my life and i feel i have bought into that illusion for a long time. out of all those hundreds of people that have entered my life, only a few have stayed. granted, multiple factors must align for a relationship to be sustained such as employment, location, interest, etc. and so many of these factors are indeed out of my control that i have once thought that the relationships i have in the present is a divine present.

because of the low number of people that have stayed, friends have become a scarcity.

on faith

it's been around 10 years since i've become a christian.  i've had a fantastic journey.  i experienced change and exponential growth as a part of kccc. i've served in local churches as a small group leader. in recent years, i've served as a deacon.

because of a lack of dependable workers, i've served in all sorts of capacities from incorporating the church, to signing the lease as a guarantor.

by now, i feel like i've seen and experienced both the glitters and pits of ministry and there is one thought these experiences leave me with :

our faith is a marathon, not a sprint.

the tragedies, difficulties, troubles, worries of this world indeed have the capacity to gnaw at our faith, slowly chipping away at what we once thought was indestructible.  

the struggle becomes more real and raw as time passes, and for some of us, the only remaining part of our once seemingly indestructible faith are scattered fragments.

how are we to keep our faith grounded, growing, and flourishing?