'Regular' miracles

Two friends and I went a small pizza place in Washington, Illinois this week, after a sad attempt at an afternoon of 'antique shopping'......which was actually a quick stop in a candy shop, and the purchase of a table runner. Lana and Krystyn have been friends of mine for about three years now, yet when the three of us spend time together, I am regularly reminded of different beauties in life.

The relatively flavorless pizza didn't satisfy us for long, and we began to fill the time with talks. I should probably say that they talked the most, and I listened. I listened to wise people share wise stories, and I felt blessed. Call me sentimental or overly emotional, but I like it. It feels so deeply healthy to sit back sometimes and truly break down the blessings, in any given moment.

I sat and thought about the paths of life. Lana is about to have her first baby, a baby her and her husband PRAYED AND PRAYED for. A baby that will be brought in to a beautiful home, filled with love, Jesus, laughter, and messy moments. She knows what it is like to truly seek God in moments of despair and yearning. She is stronger than an ox, and a pillar of spiritual strength.

Krystyn is getting married within the next year. She is in the beginning moments of planning everything for the wedding. Krys is at an amazing, hectic, and beautiful time in her life. This is the time that her kids will ask about in the future, and her family's story is beginning.

I leave for Africa in a little over 3 weeks, and will be gone for at least a year and a half. It is absolutely what God is calling me to do, and I have no doubt about that. My life is also about to change in a huge way, but in a far different way from either of them.

We are all three at entirely different parts of our lives. We are about to have different celebrations, different upsets, different worries, different prayers. Yet this is exactly why I find special friendships to be so beautiful. We are able to come together and be united, through our walks with Christ, and through our walks in life.

Unite with others. Listen to their stories and share yours. It will always be vastly different from others in many ways, but that's what makes it yours. Feel things deeply and don't be afraid of how it may change you. Be open, be loving, and be accepting. Take little journeys on to someone else's path, just long enough to gain a understanding of life in their shoes....but then go right back to yours, because it will be awful lonely in the mean time.

This week I took my blindfold off to regular things that are actually incredible. Having a baby, a miracle baby. Getting married to the love of your life, someone that is your other half. Starting a new journey and holding nothing back, throwing all caution to the wind.

Don't ever let yourself start to view a miracle as 'regular', because a miracle isn't defined by how many times it happens. It is possible that we are just loved enough to live amidst them.

Boxes

The paster at the church I attend talked one morning about how people often put God in "boxes", only accessing or even noticing certain aspects of Him when it's convenient. I think we can tend to do this with life. As we grow, we put the good things in one, the really good things in another, sad things in one, and the make-you-want-to-let-your-mascara-filled-tears-fall-in-to-a-tub-of-double-chocolate-ice-cream moments in another. It's really easy and convenient to only get in to a box when we want it, and keep the others at distance when we don't. It's easy to only let the people around us see specific parts of our lives, our thoughts, and our souls. Not only are we kidding those around us when we do this, but we are kidding ourselves: taking pieces of ourselves away, and clouding our hearts from being seen by others and also seeing the beauty in things around us.....even within the really grim things.

This blog is about un-fogging our hearts and our minds. It's about taking off the blindfold to the things we are too scared to see, or too worried to notice. 

Taking off the blindfold to see ourselves, others, God, beauty, fear, faith, love, sadness, pain, and all the others things that this crazy-beautiful world brings us.

Because when we do, I think we will experience what life is really all about....with eyes and hearts wide open.