Thoughts on a Relationship with Jesus Christ | Sol Wylie

I’m a music guy. And I like to buy a lot of my music gear from a website called Sweetwater.

Now, what’s different about Sweetwater compared to every other gear marketplace, like Reverb, is that Sweetwater assigns a Sales Engineer to you when you create an account. My guy’s name is Conner. He’s there mostly for whenever I end up breaking something and need some help, or if I need to return something.

But a couple of months ago, something funny happened. I guess at some point I had given Sweetwater my birthday when creating my account, and Conner went out of his way to call and wish me a happy birthday. He’s also subscribed to my little YouTube channel, where I post my music. And while I’m sure that’s part of Sweetwater’s customer service model, I still find it interesting that they’re trained to actually develop relationships with the people they’re assigned to.

I think a lot of us, especially those around my age, tend to treat Christ like one of Sweetwater’s Sales Engineers. We call Him up whenever we’re struggling. Whenever things aren’t going how we’d like them to. When we have trouble in relationships. When the car’s engine dies on the interstate. When we misplace the remote for the fourth time this afternoon. (I’m guilty of that one for sure.)

But do we give Him the chance to develop a better relationship with us than that of a personal assistant?

Well, what does a real relationship with Jesus Christ look like?

That’s a phrase we hear a lot in church. But, well, it can feel a little…abstract. We can’t just text Him. It seems a little strange to start a prayer with, “Yo, how’s your day been?” It’s not like we can invite Him to lunch. And unfortunately, He can’t physically come help us find the remote.

So what does it mean? I don’t think that having a relationship with Christ means thinking about Him or praying every second of the day. I think it means including Him in our lives consistently enough that turning to Him just feels completely natural. And not just when things are going bad, but when things are going good, too.

It means praying not only when we need something, but when we’re grateful for something, too. It means reading the scriptures not because we need to check off a box on our bedtime to-do list, but because we’re trying to understand Him better.

And that leads me to another thought. Ultimately, Conner from Sweetwater’s goal is to know me well enough to recommend gear and remind me that Sweetwater still exists as the “good guy” in the industry whenever I get tempted by the better prices on Reverb.

But unlike Conner, Christ’s goal isn’t to get to know us. He already does.

The relationship isn’t for His benefit.

It’s for ours.

The more I thought about that, the more I realized that Christ doesn’t ask us to build a relationship with Him because He’s lonely or because He needs our attention. He asks us to build a relationship with Him because He knows what that relationship can do for us.

When we spend time learning about Him through the scriptures, we begin to understand how He would respond to challenges. When we pray, we become more aware of His guidance. When we try to follow His example, we slowly become more patient, more forgiving, and more capable of helping the people around us.

A relationship with Jesus Christ doesn’t just change how often we pray or read the scriptures. It changes who we’re becoming.

When I was writing this and thinking about the questions I was going to offer up here, I noticed that I struggled to answer a few of them myself. Like many others here, I’m not quite there yet. I’m far from it really. But I’m working hard to get there.

And through that process, I can always hold on to my testimony of the little things. Little things like that, I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church. That I know the scriptures are true.

And that I know the temple is the closest we can get to heaven on this earth. And because the temple is true, I know what is taught there must be true. The scriptures must be true. The Church must be true.

And Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father, and the Holy Ghost must surely be real.