Monthly Archives: December 2012

Three Things I Love About My Friends

My friends are more unique than I can wrap my mind around most days. They’ve grown up all over the country…some in different parts of the world. Some, I’m almost certain, are long lost twins of mine & others I threaten to never speak to again because they don’t like mint chocolate M&Ms :) We have bonded over everything from Mexican food to a night on the town to music to a fiercely competitive game of Phase 10. They collectively have more quirks than I can count.  

But I’ve come to see that despite the differences, there are three things all of my closest friends have in common that I love about them:

  1. They live like they believe relationships matter
  2. They embrace the unconventional 
  3. They crave growth

At the end of the day, those three things are at the core of who I am. I believe that making time for friends is what gives life depth & richness. That unconventional may be risky & non-sensical but it’s also often a door to a fuller life. And I am passionate about growth because seeing God’s redeeming restoring work in action is one of the most beautiful things.

I’m beginning to think that those heart connecting similarities are the ones that really matter. They are the things that allow us to fight through the not so likable sides of one another & come out friends on the other side. To see the beauty in working through the ugly. To embrace the awkward moments & seasons as catalysts for growth. To feel like no time has passed when we only get to catch up every 6 months. And to experience a fuller richer life because of it.

What do you love about your friends? 

Comment Just Life, Relationships

When Your Soul Wakes Up

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. – Zora Neale Hurston 

It’s true. Love really does make your soul come out of hiding. In the last 12 months I have known love of different sorts – friendly love, romantic love…even the unexplainable love of strangers. As I read this quote tonight, it put words to the season I’m in – my soul has come out of hiding.

And can I tell you? It’s an equally frightening & exhilarating place to be? The threat of hurt looms around every corner. A broken heart is one vulnerable moment away. But the freedom of being known is waiting on the other side of an honest confession. The opportunity for connection a conversation away.

No one told me that my soul waking up would be so painful at times. Or, as a friend tweeted the other day, “no one told me that getting my heart back would hurt so much.”

Love wakes us up in a way that not much can. LOVE was what woke us up at the beginning of time, so it’s no wonder, is it? But, when we wake up…when our soul crawls timidly out of its hiding place in the darkness of fear & shame into the light of love, acceptance, & freedom, it’s a shock to our system. It will hurt. But I also have to believe that, if I see it through, I will discover a life unlike any I’ve known before.

 

Comment Deep Thinking, Just Life