I remember about a dozen years ago… there was a wicked flu making the rounds…the Nold’s were just starting to get it on the weekend. People prayed and I didn’t get it, so I was able to preach that weekend. But then apparently everyone quit praying, because that Thursday it tackled me. I woke up about 3:00am, and it was wicked. A wicked flu. I won’t even try to describe what was coming out of me…or where.

That morning after about four hours huddled over the toilet, I was lying in bed, barely conscious of Jake — who was about five years old — in my bedroom. I didn’t even say hi. He rummaged around in the bedroom and the went back downstairs.

He found Lynn, and said, “Oh mom, Dad’s poor.” “What do you mean Jake?” “We’ll he’s lying up there in bed and he’s real sick and I don’t even think he knew I was in there and….” “Oh, Jake,” Lynn interrupted, “you don’t mean Dad’s poor. You mean poor dad.” “No, Mom, dad’s poor. I looked in his billfold and he doesn’t have any money!”

I was poor in more ways than one! I came into the office that morning, because I thought I just had too much to do and everyone backed away from me as I walked by. Like my own personal invisible wall traveled with me. I had nothing to offer, except my sickness.

No one would come close…except for Lynn. You see family are those folks who will get close even when it means they might get sick.

You know what? The reality is that we all carry a certain element of poverty and sickness within our hearts, all the time. It’s woven throughout our personalities. And when we allow our hearts to rub up against others… sometimes it opens our hearts to the vomit of life.

But we do it, because instinctively we know that in order to find life we need to get connected…that true life is not found behind walls, but beyond walls. So let me just ask you, “Are you connected for life?” Do you have people who will push through your junk? Are you the kind of person who is willing to push through someone else’s junk?

Somewhere along the line we started believing the lie that wealth is found in stuff. It’s not, true wealth is found in our relationships — first with God, then with people. Your relationships will look different from mine, God has shaped us in unique ways, which shapes our relationships in unique ways, but He created us all with a connection requirement.

I’ve spent some time today thinking about my relationships… Lynn, my kids, people who are on the Calvary adventure with me, a handful of pastors in town, my extended family, friends… Wow. I am blessed.