The Circle Broken
Why We Cannot Sustain Relationships
Fences
Some relationships do, indeed, have expiration dates. And, in
attempting to be a grownup, I have frequently labored with some
people longer and gone farther than I should have. When a
relationship becomes toxic, and you have exhausted avenues of
fixing the problem, then, yeah, it's time to pull the plug. The
fact is, you can often find yourself being in relationship with
someone who is not in relationship with you. Being worried about
someone who is never apparently worried about you. Constantly
giving to someone who only seems to be taking from you.
These kinds of people are often classified as narcissists. Most
of them never realize this is, in fact, what they are doing–
taking without giving and draining your good will and your
Christian love without giving anything in return. Relationships
should, ideally, be a two-way street. Sometimes I pick up the
check, sometimes you pick up the check. Relationships should be
like Social Security: you pay into the system over the years and
it should be there when you need it. Imagine the disappointment,
the hurt, we suffer when finally it is our turn to lean on
someone we've been propping up for ten years, only to discover
they are not there for us. Narcissists are, for the most
part, incapable of even seeing how self-absorbed they are, have
no concept at all of the damage they routinely inflict on you,
or the failing grade they earn as a friend. These are people so
wounded, so damaged, so incredibly insecure, apologizing would
cause them to burst into flames.
I have friends in my life that I am, frankly, scared to talk to.
When I am over their house, I feel uncomfortable in my own skin.
For, I know, if I say or do the wrong thing, I could set them
off fairly easily. These are people inclined to find fault and
who are easily rubbed the wrong way. The best and easiest way to
be around them, the way they enjoy me, is for me to agree with
them. To be in a Zen Buddhist mode where I am one with their
reality and their understanding of the world. What they can't
understand is, this diminishes me as a living soul. I cease to
exist because, for me to actually exist would be experienced by
them as a threat. They experience singularity—opinions and
understanding that do not agree with theirs—as violence. They
experience me, the Actual Me as opposed to the Their View of Me,
as an assault and they go on the defensive, getting their back
up. I have friends who go from zero to agitated in a matter of
seconds. Whose skin is so desperately brittle they can be
mortally wounded by just a wrong look. I don't care to be around
these people, because, when I am, I have an enormous knot in my
stomach, and I am inclined to simply agree with them, with their
reality, to appease them and protect our "relationship."
“It's no fun walking on eggshells,” says Jason Gaulden, director of
Denver's Gaulden Group LLC,. “We don't want to talk about
it, but a lot of our community's insecurity goes back to the
plantation days, where we were made to believe we were nothing
and certainly had nothing.
“It goes back to the old analogy about the grass being greener
on the other side of the fence. But, you see, that's not the end
of that analogy. The complete analogy would suggest that the
grass is greener on the other side because the neighbor on the
other side of the fence works harder at it. We are looking in
from the brown side, without stopping to notice how much work
our neighbor is putting into his lawn. We are often quick to
blame, quick to envy and slow to forgive– not seeing the larger
picture of what it took to get that grass as green as it is.
“The white community's green lawn is built on family tradition
and resources going back generations, while the black community
is still, in large measure, accruing resources and building
their own infrastructure and sense of identity.
“Jim Collin's book, Good To Great [2001, HarperCollins; ISBN:
0066620996], has a chapter called, 'Confronting The Brutal
Facts.' Before we as a community can overcome our own
shortcomings in the area of relationships, this is what we have
to do. “
A Godly Selfishness
To be sure, some relationships should be ended. I mean, the
above mentioned “friendship” is no friendship at all. It's just
me with this movie running through my head where these people
are my friends. But they're not my friends, they're their
friends. I don't exist as an individual but only as an extension
of their narcissism. Reconciling narcissism and Christianity is
a tough task. Christ could hardly be thought of as a narcissist.
He was divinely aware of the individual beauty and purpose of
each soul within His orbit. He accepted people as He found them.
He didn't write anybody off. I have to stop and ask myself what
I'm getting out of these relationships, out of expending energy
and time going out of my way to make them feel secure, when they
seem barely aware of my very existence.
I had this dream once where I was cooking dinner and, as I
waited for my friend to arrive, I started tidying up the house.
And, as I tidied the house, I suddenly realized– she wasn't
coming. I just instinctively knew it. The phone would eventually
ring and she'd have some excuse, but she wasn't coming over.
And, it was as if I heard God ask me, Why are you cooking dinner
for people who are not coming?
We need to stop cooking dinner for people who are not coming.
Those of us who can maintain relationships need to stop enabling
those who cannot: people who trade us like baseball cards and
dismiss us when we no longer serve a useful function in their
lives. People who take us, our unique purpose on Earth, and our
special-ness, for granted, choosing only to use us as fuel for
their chronic self-absorption. PraiseNet contributing editor Joy
Banks, who holds a master's degree in Christian Counseling,
asked me, “Yeah, but look here: Who's cooking dinner for you?
You're so busy cooking for everybody else, but who's looking out
for you?”
Jesus teaches us to espouse a kind of godly selflessness and
humility, but Joy told me Jesus never intended us to cease to
exist, or to exhaust our resources and our lives indulging the
whims of narcissists. In fact, our Christian duty is to not
enable un-Christ-like behavior. Part of learning how to maintain
healthy relationships is the process setting boundaries, of
pruning unhealthy or toxic relationships from our lives, as the
unhealthy relationships will, certainly, choke out the healthy
ones.
Of all the people in the world, we seem to forgive each other
the least. We, who should be endowed with the power, the ability
to imitate the limitless grace of our Creator, and who should
exhibit gifts of the Spirit which include patience and
longsuffering, are often the worst examples of human intolerance
and, frankly, immaturity. A people of toes perpetually stepped
on. We jump from church to church. From friend to friend. From
relationship to relationship. From bed to bed. Often, without
explanation, we simply stop calling. Stop speaking. There's been
some damage, some hurt, but we feel (or know) holding the
offending party accountable will mean the end of the
relationship, so we just let it go. And then the next hurt, we
let that one go, too. And the one after that. And the twelfth
one.
Pastor Jim Dotson, of Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, said
the reason we have such difficulty sustaining relationships is,
“We don't fight enough. We repress our differences and
eventually separate, rather than giving those differences a good
airing out. Conflict inspires closeness, as in any conflict two
or three will group together in one opinion, two or three in
another. At the end of it all, at least two of you have
strengthened your bond in some way.” Serving overseas in the Air
Force, Pastor Dotson, a retired Colonel, said, “We had three
common bonds that drew us together overseas: language, food and
hair products. It was difficult to get hair products for people
of color, and, of course our common language and desire for
American food drew us closer together. People who arrived
strangers, from different states and different communities,
forged bonds that endure to this day.”
Wrap.
Christopher J. Priest
15 November 2002 / 3 May 2009
editor@praisenet.org
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