Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.  Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. (Matthew 5:25-26).

Yesterday, Jesus talked about how strife with others will hinder you spiritual life.

Today, we see that it can get in the way of other aspects of your life as well.

Yeah, so maybe the key is to take care of your interpersonal issues right away, hmmm?  Don’t let them problems brew, or you’ll end up with Trouble Tea.

Get it?  Brew…tea…ya?

When you were a kid, did you ever build a tower out of blocks? The goal, of course, was height; you wanted your tower to reach the stars.  So you started stacking one block on top of another, going for the record. The problem was, before your tower got too tall it started to wobble.  If you didn’t act quickly, it would collapse. The way to strengthen your tower, to keep it from wobbling, was simple:

Make it wider.

As a child you learned that vertical must be supported by horizontal or…crash.

True for blocks, true for relationships.  Your relationship with God does not–cannot–exist apart from your relationship with others. Those relationships are where you put into practice all that you learn from your walk with God.  It’s where the abstract becomes concrete.

What people issues do you have to deal with today?  Deal with them in as quickly and Christ-honoring a fashion as you  can.

Stack those blocks wide, Beloved.  Build your tower tall.

Happy Friday