Digging My Hole

I was digging a hole that was already over my head, using a heavy iron crowbar that was almost as tall as me. Everything was going fine until the crowbar, instead of pounding into the dirt, plunged into my big toe. For a while, that toe seemed like the most important thing in my world. Pain does that. Likewise, relationships are important and when they send us careering in pain they assume horrendous importance. As important as human relationships are, however, our relationship with God is even more critical and will last not just a lifetime but for all eternity. Human relationships become a source of immense disappointment and heartache when we try to wring from them love, understanding and fulfillment of an intensity or perfection that only a perfect God of infinite love and wisdom can offer. I had fallen into the slimy quicksand of trying to claw from a human what only God can give. Instead, I should have deepened my relationship with the One who alone has perfect love and will never leave.