Intimacy and Systems

We humans, we like to build things.

We build ministries, departments, systems, processes, and strategies. We do this with relationships where certified "experts" tell us how to be intimate with our partner. We do this with ministries as we formulate methods and practices guaranteed to help us reach new spiritual levels. 

I think that's why God destroyed the Tower of Babel. Broken humans building systems to get to God, perhaps that's why He scattered them, to prevent them from making the same mistake. To get them alone, to provide an environment where intimacy can happen--sans systems.

But oh! How I love them! I build them for a living. Give me a mess and I'll build you a machine.

Systems are logical, predictable and easy.

People are not.

For years I've tried to used systems in relationships, only to find that they cannot account for the human condition. People are messy and unique, I am messy and unique, and the only option I have is to open my heart daily and let them in. Real intimacy has no system, especially with God.

Babel showed us this-- that while we can build a tower tall enough to reach the heavens, it cannot bring us closer to God.

Intimacy is about being, not building. It happens amidst the mess, not the cleaning of it.





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What about you? Is intimacy scary? What systems have you relied on in relationships with God or others?



**I am not against the use of systems, processes, practices, or ministries appropriately, but they are no substitute for real true one-on-one intimacy with God.