If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in the same relational conflict (different person, same pattern) you’re not alone. The reality is, our struggles in relationships are rarely random. Beneath the surface, there are patterns at work; deep, often unseen ways that we think, react, and relate to others. Paul Tripp helpfully identifies several of these patterns, all rooted in the same place: a heart that tends to turn inward.

This week, we want to invite you to take a simple but honest look at your relationships. In the message, we talked about how we often drift in our relationships without realizing it. Toward distance, frustration, or avoidance.

This chart is a tool to help you slow down and name where things actually are. Walk through each category (spouse, family, friends, church, coworkers) and ask: is this relationship thriving, strained, or avoided?

There are certain things in life that are just… messy.  Take one of the best foods on the face of the planet, for example: chicken wings.  They’re one of the best foods you can eat (in my humble but correct opinion). But they come with a cost. Sauce on your hands. Napkins piling up. Maybe even a stain or two… or three…if you’re not careful.

Easter is one of the most significant moments each year in the life of our church. It’s more than a holiday on a calendar.  It's a moment in history when everything changed.  And it’s not just a celebration.  It’s an opportunity. Every year, people who don’t normally attend church walk through our doors open to something more.  It’s the friend in our life who is struggling in a broken marriage.  The family member who just received that dire diagnosis.  Or the co-worker who is stuck in a purposeless existence.  These are the people that God desires to draw to himself…and there’s no more strategic time than Easter to lean into what God desires to do.

Every person carries questions they can’t quite shake.  They may not always say them out loud, but they’re there—sometimes in quiet moments, sometimes in seasons of crisis,  sometimes in the middle of success that somehow still feels empty.