From The Editor: Constellation of Connection

Relationships are the foundation, the purpose, and the fulfillment of life. This was one of my latenight musings a few years back — life as the culmination of relationship.

When we are children, we are entirely self-centered. This is born of an innate self-preservation tendency; before we are even self-aware, we naturally strive to survive. This makes us resilient as a species but is untenable as we grow older and look to enter society. At some point we start to see outside of ourselves. Piaget’s theory of the stages of cognitive development suggests this is usually around ages 7-11, though some people can struggle to understand outside perspectives for much longer.

But striving to see the world from someone else’s point of view is important for building relationships with those around us. If you don’t even try to understand why your fellow corps member insists on what you consider to be odd behavior, how will you ever bridge the gap between you to become friends or fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? Building that relationship is not only essential to the foundation of your corps family, but to you as a person.

Use your mind’s eye with me for a moment. When you build a relationship with someone, imagine a bright line of light connecting the two of you. Before, your existence was just you, a small star of light in the cosmos. But now, with this connection, you are a tiny constellation. The more relationships you build with those around you, the brighter you shine. At the end of your life, when viewing your soul’s existence from this meta-perspective, you are a galaxy, built by thousands and thousands of brilliant points of connection.

If you look back at your memories of your life to this point, you’ll likely see moments, feelings, and people. Even my memories of impactful moments have to do with my relationship to the world around me, if not to people directly. My whole history is made up of relationships, of connections, no matter how brief. At the end of my life, my whole existence will be the result of all those relationships and their impact upon my soul.

My soul-constellation will be a testament to how well and how deeply I connected with others and God’s creation.

The ability to connect is essential for us in becoming the shining, guiding lights that God can use to impact those around us. We must learn to see life from other points of view, be willing to understand those around us, and be mature enough to know that our narrow view of the world is not the whole picture.

In a world of social distancing and a proliferation of online media, more and more people are suffering from post-pandemic loneliness. We have an entire generation that doesn’t know how to connect to others on even the most basic of levels. Many of us may need to revisit our Sunday school lessons to find our way back to the fundamentals: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,” (Matthew 7:12a). Treat others the way you would like to be treated. This will help us see things from their perspective, lead to understanding where they’re coming from, and aid in building an initial connection to a fellow human being, another person made in the image of our great and perfect God.

That connection will be another point in the beautiful constellation you were created to be.