The Shack - Relationships Based On Expectancy

I am currently reading through "The Shack," and while I definitely do not agree with everything in it, I came across a deep section of the book today.

This paragraph is from page 207. This is a chapter that is talking about verbs. This section talks about expectancy in relationships.

“Let’s use the example of friendship and how removing the element of life from a noun can drastically alter a relationship. Mack, if you and I are friends, there is an expectancy that exists within our relationship. When we see each other or are apart, there is an expectancy of being together, of laughing and talking. That expectancy has no concrete definition; it is alive and dynamic and everything that emerges from our being together is a unique gift shared by NO ONE ELSE. But what happens if I change that expectancy to an expectation – spoken or unspoken? Suddenly, law has entered into our relationship. You are now expected to perform in a way that meets my expectations. Our living friendship rapidly deteriorates into a dead thing with rules and requirements. It is no longer about you and me, but about what friends are supposed to do, or the responsibilities of a good friend.”
“Or,” noted Mack, “the responsibilities of a husband, or a father, or an employee, or whatever. I get the picture. I would much rather live in expectancy.”


This passage immediately hit me really hard, and I began to read it again and again. There is so much in this paragraph. What first stuck out to me was this..
So often we have relationships, and they suddently turn into a relationship based on expectation. We HAVE to do something...we have to fit ourselves into a certain mold. It becomes an obligation, and this is when we cease to be ourselves. I must say that this is not real relationship, this is not real intimacy with another person. We must do everything that we can to guard against our relationsihps becoming all about expectations and rather have them be about expectancy. If we don't, our relationships become dead.

The second part I thought about was much later in the day. Often, we treat our relationhship with God like this. We treat our relationship with God as a duty, as something we have to do. It becomes a responsibility. We do things for God simply because it's something we're supposed to do because we say we're Christians. It becomes a "dead thing, with rules and requirements."
God doesn't want our relationship with Him to be like that. He wants us to delight in Him, He wants us to do things simply because we love Him and we desire Him above all else. Our relationship with God should be alive and it should be vibrant. It should be a verb, not a noun. God longs for us to have this type of a relationship with Him, we are to seek Him and desire Him above all else. It shouldn't be a "dead thing, with rules and requirements." It is simply about me and God, alive, living, breathing, and dynamic. A verb, not a noun.