Let me start with my coffee talk with my Little Sis this week. She's been away a long time and I miss our talks. From the very first words she spoke, I knew I had needed this time with her and to hear what she has been learning about herself and life and moving forward. She's grown so much and is becoming the INDIVIDUAL she was intended to be.
And even now as I think of her, these are the Words that come to mind..."Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn't quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn't it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal." (Luke 7:43-47)
Other recent conversations lately have left me wondering why people choose to live in the past, holding onto memories of the way things were, instead of making new memories and learning to love where their lives have brought them. I wonder, had I never realized my need to be forgiven many, many sins, would I have learned to be so very, very grateful for where God has brought me? Or would I be clinging to some fading mirage of what I thought my life was supposed to be and how I thought everyone else would turn out?
I just found myself deleting a paragraph about how I'm not who I was at any other point in my life. About how the dreams and thoughts and plans that I had throughout my life have faded and changed. It was wasted words. What's gone is gone, what's done is done. Moving forward is not about any of that. It's about dreaming new dreams and blossoming where you are, in the present, here and now. Even in the struggles and harshness of this current life, I would not wish to change anything or return to any other point in my life. You see, I have been forgiven so very, very much. More than anyone else could ever know or understand because it is MY forgiveness. No matter what doors open or close for me in this life, I will choose to be content while spilling my tears at the feet of the one who has forgiven me and who knows the very heart of me.
My hope is that I will learn to open my heart to people where they are now, as they are now, rather than holding them to who they were 20 years ago, 5 years ago, or 1 year ago. That I will not assume that I KNOW them because I KNEW them. My hope is that I will challenge people to grow, to think outside of their box or their comfort zone, to try something different and to change.
One of my favorite authors put together these beautiful words:
"And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?
It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.
I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.
Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.” (Donald Miller)
