relevance

I recently read the book This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley. I loved what he wrote on relevance, and will quote a little section below:

"...relevance is a consequence of kingdom living, not a cause. We become relevant when we are committed to being that signpost of heaven in some part of our world. When we study Scripture, we find that relevance happens naturally when we choose to be real people caring for other real people. Even real people who are not like us. Even the real people who don't hesitate to hate us. Authentic relationships make us relevant.

When my friend Laura started volunteering at a local AIDS hospice, I remember how emotional the experience got for her at times. She decided that doing tasks around the hospice wasn't enough. She would love her patients- and keep on loving them until they could feel it. Since she's a musician, she'd play music for them. Over time, the people she met became her friends, not simply her projects. When a patient died, she wept and mourned. The people at the hospice knew she loved them. She didn't have to work at being relevant because love given without any other agenda is always relevant. Relevance comes from relationship- it means we matter to someone, he or she matters to us, and we both know it."