These past few weeks have been filled with so many experiences and conversations and realizations that I desparately want to share with you but like so much of life, they are only pieces of a complete story that I do not yet understand: small clips of a movie, chapters of a book, thoughts from daydreams flowing in a steam-of-consciousness way that leaves almost everything open-ended.
So here are some of the daydreamlike moments I've had lately that have been important to me. I hope they will be meaningful to you, too :)
*I've gotten to hear quite a few people's stories in the last few weeks. One of my favorite parts about talking with people about their lives is that moment when they are taken back to a past meaningful experience--when their eyes get a little cloudy and their face gets a little more expressive and you can tell that they're not fully present with you. In that moment, I feel like they're taking me with them back to the moment when the memory took place, like I am there with them feeling those same feelings, finding importance in those same seemingly random deatils, and I can't help but smile a little bit because I know that I'm getting to be a part of a lovely form of time travel.
*I've also spent quite a bit of time trying to understand others and to help them understand what I have to say, what others have to say, or a different perspective on the same situation. It's hard--both communication and understanding--not just with people but also with God. And yet, it amazes me how God allows me to understand just as much of him as he knows that I can handle in that moment by creatively meeting with me in ways that I can understand. As a 5 year old, he helped me to understand through flannel-graphs and goofy games. As a 10 year old, he helped me to understand by watching college kids serve others and wanting to grow up to be like them by knowing and loving the God they served. As a 15 year old, he helped me to understand by giving me the space to ask questions freely and His Word where I encountered truth and hard experiences so that I might better understand suffering. As a 20 year old, he helped me to understand by giving me a family in Ecuador and the courage to be a leader on my wing. Now, God is helping me to understand by asking me to obediently trust him in the unfinished stories, the not yets, and the daydreams. I can't wait to see how he helps me to know him more next.
