“You need others to get where you’re going, and they make the ride a lot more fun,” says Leonard Sweet. 11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without is a look at the companions every life traveler needs to successfully make it to his final destination.
Sweet uses a Biblical character to illustrate each kind of relationship. Of course, we all want self-sacrificing friends like King David’s boyhood companion Jonathan. But, do we really want a relationship with someone like the prophet Nathan, a later trusted adviser to King David, who was quick and clear to his indict his friend?
Like me, most of you would probably welcome a relationship with a fellow life-traveler as a mentor, coach, encourager, or protector who’d cover your back, but have you ever thought that you might need someone to give you a good kick on the backside, like Jethro did to his son-in-law Moses? People who will “edit” you are as necessary in your life as those who will sacrifice their time and resources for you.
Sweet’s eleventh relationship is the most surprising of all because it isn’t even with a person, but a place, a place where you can pray best, where you can “live the landscape”, a place where you’re “a local”. Everyone needs at least one place to plant spiritual roots.
It’s been said that the meaning of life is in the journey, not the destination. Actually, both are important, but Sweet argues that it’s those who you bring along with you that really make the difference.