Life is that stuff that happens between our planned events. And knowing this, I thank God for letting me respond to His creation around me. I had the pleasure of meeting with several of the neighbors in my life over the past day or so…how we are all so different. Meeting in eateries with breakfast for dinner, sitting on sofas, downtown sharing coffee, praying in missions, and eating soup up on the plains...and then back…I wish I could convey the different faces, and ranges of emotion from either side of my eyes – inside and outside, received and reaction. But reaction isn’t the right word. It is that response offered to God modeling lives right before the gift that is our eyes.
In one instance I watch the sarcasm of ‘meeting purposefully’ fall away to become expectant desires of being real about Jesus in the company of others…sharing heartfelt observations and seeking direction…beginning conversations where there had been none.
There are also the pale faces of humility unwanted. We are not tragically unique in our struggles with God’s desire for our entire heart…but sometimes it feels we are alone. To sit and listen, pray and visit – while the color returns to faces – and see the opportunity God places before us to build and shape our character together is an honor.
Visiting with old friends, now with transformed lives – both of us recognizing this process active in each others heart…knowing the wonder and miracle God is in one another. Understanding the deep truth that we could both be dead and lost, and would have been, if left to our own hands.
There was then the celebration of accomplishments with good friends missed of late, and their families. And even more – healing apparent both physical and emotional, and joyful family-wide friendships. To be a part of an extended community of family visiting over news of coming events, and including one another in our lives.
It’s been a wonderful 24 hours. Not to mention the newfound ‘here and now’ in my own life…and blessing beyond the words I have at hand. God loved me first; so that I may then love another…of this I am certain.
The tension in these places - the life between planned events – rises and falls in rhythm. It isn’t that there is concern over the low places; rather an understanding that our response should reflect the heart of the whole song.
No comments:
Post a Comment