Musings at Altitude

I mentioned in the last post about the frustrating time of doing that occurs between dreaming and being done.

I’m taking a totally different spin this time, and thinking about the distance between you and your boss, you and your spouse, you and your friend or you and your God.

True intimacy means very little distance between you and the other, and that minimal distance typically dictates the health of the relationship.  The greater the distance, the greater the frustration or uncertainty about the relationship.  The shorter the distance, the greater the openness and the stronger the trust in the relationship.

With a boss, lots of things get in the way of a closeness between the two of you.  It could be workload…just too many things going on to spend any time focusing on the relationship with those that report to them.  It also could be a complete discomfort with intimacy, since getting close means opening up in ways that may not be comfortable for those in leadership positions.  Regardless, that distance in between the two of you could be the difference between great excitement or extreme uncertainty about your role in the organization.

With a spouse or friend, it’s the same thing.  The distance between the two of you determine the intimacy in the relationship and the trust that then results.  The more distant you are, the more it seems like just about everything becomes a complication in the relationship.  When you’re very close, those complications become minor events and the hurdles that friends always face become easily surmountable.

With our Creator, it’s a bit different.  That’s the one relationship where we define the distance, because He’s there regardless of our actions or intentions, and His desire is to be very tight with us.  The distance in this case is determined by our willingness to seek Him and our submission and obedience to His higher authority.  We often let our own egos or our own sin get in the way of intimacy, but He’s there if we reach out to Him.

I think each of us would love to have that perfectly small distance in between us and those we want to be close to.  When that does happen, wonderful excitement occurs because of that intimacy between each of us and our boss, or between us and our spouses or friends, and between us and our Creator.  In the first two, we can do our part, and we’ll need help from those we’re working hard to be close to in order to minimize the distance .  In the third, it’s all up to us.

Here’s to each of us as we try to minimize the in between and achieve that optimum closeness.

We’ll each know when we’re there!