I am an introvert.

I am a smart introvert.

I am a hard worker who can figure out how to get things done.

I was quite successful in school all the way through to my graduate degree and have been pretty successful in the fields I have chosen to work. Although I have always worked with people and have had functional relationships with them, for the first 40 years of my life I really did not know that I needed them.

I got along just fine doing my job and not getting deeply involved in the lives of others, especially adults. Adults are messy, but they should be able to stand up and deal with things.

Figure it out… stop whining and grow up. Stop going back to those people, things, actions that kick you in the face each time you are there. Good grief, just put the bottle down… right!

It took the long, slow, painful dissolution of my marriage for me to consider that just maybe my successful loner/introverted life was not the way I was designed. I read several times The DNA of Relationships. The verse "If you say you love God and do not love those around you, you are a liar" (1 John 4:20) began to work in me.

The truth of three Persons in one Being screams eternal, never-ending relationship…and I am stamped in that Being's Image.

About 5 years ago, I called two friends and said, "Let's start getting together once a week and just live life together." They agreed.

We have been doing this and I have never eaten so well, learned so much, been stretched in my thinking, given myself to others with them, etc. We are occasionally including some young men in their 20's into our group. They sure add another element of thinking and living!

The point is this.

God is a Being in eternal relationship with the 3 persons of the Godhead. He stamped all of us with His Image. There is a lot to this, but one thing that is certain is that relationship is part of that Image… even for introverts.  

God, in the person of Jesus, laid down His life for us. I am to reflect Him. There are no special blessings given to those who at the end of their lives have loves unshared, selves ungiven, activities unactivated, deeds undone, and emotions unextended.

The life that Jesus brings to us is a shared life (1 John 1:1-4) and I cannot know Jesus deeply without mixing my life up with yours.

We really do need each other.

Maybe when the writer of Hebrews said, "…not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some…," he meant a LOT more than "Make sure you go to church on Sunday."