May 14th was my fiancee and my anniversary, an amazing two years together! Actually, what's amazing is that she put up with me for two years... Our relationship has been slightly more difficult than most I have been involved in, for many different reasons. The first being that we started out in a distance relationship after working at a camp together, and the second being that we came from completely different worlds.

My fiancee is hard of hearing, and involved in the deaf culture; while I came from the "hearing world." Of course, to be together I had to become more familiar with the deaf culture, and my sign language needed to improve... a lot. And, with our differences we had quite a few fights, even threatening to break off the relationship at times- frustrated that things were just not going the way we wanted. Yet, through it all, we somehow prevailed, and today we are stronger than ever, and looking forward to a lifetime filled with each other's love... something more than I could have ever imagined.

Thinking about my relationship with her, I was then directed to another relationship... my relationship with God. Being raised a Christian by my parents I can claim that I have always believed in God and been a Christian, however I haven't always had the strongest relationship with Him. In fact, my relationship, like most started off distant, without Him being as involved in my life as He should have been. He wasn't always my main focus or consideration. Just like my relationship with my now fiancee, my relationship with God was long distance.

I am sure this is something that we can all relate to, a time in our lives where God was there, but at the same time He wasn't. While He was involved in our lives, we didn't involve Him as much as we needed to. And like most distance relationships, we tend to ignore Him when we are angry or busy. We get angry at our inability to understand Him or His plans, and our inability to "communicate" with Him. And at times, we may even consider "breaking up" with God.

I wish I could say living as a Christian is always easy, but we know it is not... we know that there are many reasons that our relationship can fail. Whether it be that we are not willing to conform, not mature enough for a real relationship, or we just let outside forces get in and destroy everything. We can get frustrated when we do not improve as much as we want, or when we feel that we are just "standing still."

But just like if my fiancee and I had broken up, breaking up with God would mean losing the greatest, most wonderful blessing in our life... a relationship with someone who truly loves us, and wants what is best for us (Jeremiah 29:11). It would mean missing out on more than we can ever imagine (John 15:11)... a joy that comes after all of the hard work.

Today, where is your relationship with God? Are you staying at a distance, or trying to get closer to Him? Are you ignoring Him, or asking Him to speak to you constantly? Are you putting your personal ambitions and feelings first, letting others dictate your relationship, or focusing strictly on serving Him and loving Him as He loves you? (Ephesians 2:4-5)