What does relationship preparation mean?
Let’ s say that I want to be a figure skater so I hire an Olympic gold medalist to be my coach. If I don’ t step onto the ice before my first lesson, and if I don’ t practice in between training sessions, I will not learn all that the coach could teach me. My coach’ s skill level and teaching ability would not be the limiting factors, nor would my own athletic potential. Rather, my willingness to prepare for the relationship would determine how much I would come to“ look like” my coach. If, on the other hand, I train for years, spend countless hours on the ice, enter into various competitions during which I sometimes win and other times fail, and learn to rebound after recovering from injuries, the master skater could more fully develop my aptitude for skating. I would understand my coach’ s lingo and be quicker to augment my skill set through expert instruction.
Is a coach’ s interaction with his goldmedalist student different from his interaction with a beginner? Does a closer bond form when an athlete performs at a higher level, and coach and student walk together through the agony of setbacks and the glory of championship moments?
Holiness demands relationship preparation. Behind God’ s standard for holiness is his desire to deepen our relationship with him and bring us into our full potential. The call to holiness does not burden or restrict. It gives life!
In the end, God will showcase His redeemed people through holiness. Ezekiel writes in Chapter 20:41-42,“ As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.”
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