i bet all of you could finish that statement,eh?
"then don't say anything at all!"
my mom repeated this phrase a GA-million times. and on occasion i have used it myself.
one of my favorite things about birthdays is that you get to talk to loads of people that you love all in one day. even if it's just a brief conversation with "i love you's" and "happy birthdays" it's such an encouragement. anywho, one special birthday conversation took place that stuck with me. a friend (i'll leave her name anonymous since i didn't ask permission to use this story on the world wide web) and i spent some time talking about our big move and the pain and grief that was involved. this particular friend has moved her fair share amount of times and has been served multiple cups of intense grief over the years. while speaking about her own dance with grief she said, (and i paraphrase) " i know for myself that it's ok to grieve b/c it means that something was really special or important, but if i stay there, in all actuality i begin to become ungrateful."
WOW! grief has a way of consuming us, doesn't it? grief has a way of making the here and now blurry. it does not mean we are to pull ourselves up off the ground and pretend like everything is ok. it doesn't mean we deny the painful events and circumstances that hurt us, but we DON'T STAY THERE. my mom always says, "you can go there, but you can't camp there!"
i needed to hear that. i don't feel like my grief has been too much or too dramatic. we left something incredibly special. probably something that we will never recreate anywhere else. but i know that if i stay here my heart will become ungrateful and i will miss the HERE and NOW while longing for the then and there. i don't want to do that... i want to treasure what we had in virginia and continue to maintain and grow in our relationships with people there via a new method of long distance. but God has something for us in the here and now!
two things come to mind that i am extremely thankful for right; our home and a new church we have been visiting.
our home is such a sweet haven. it is warm, it has tons of sunlight, it is a perfect place to host some serious rad parties, it is the right price for our budget, it has new amenities that honestly, i thought i would only experience on vacations, and it is beginning to feel like home. for this we are grateful.
i am pretty excited about a church we have been visiting. it is a PCA church called Woodland Ridge Presbyterian (we have kind of fallen in love with the PCA church.... something i never envisioned happening :)
it is a congregation that exemplifies the many tribes and many nations that scripture speaks to. we worship with people who do not look like us, talk like us, worship like us, and i find myself seeing my God in a WHOLE new light. ask mark, i have spent many sundays crying b/c of how powerful it is to watch these people worship the same God i am worshiping. i am glad heaven will not just be filled with american, caucasian, middle class people who follow the book of church order. i am delighted to see my children interact with other children who it is a struggle to communicate with, but a huge smile translates into all languages! we have found a really special place in Woodland Ridge. We are excited to see what God has for us there, how we can use our time, talents, and tithes to serve this body of incredibly unique followers of God.
we have been called to "rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, again i will say rejoice!"
the Lord has given us an unending list of things to rejoice in. i am praying that even in the midst of some pretty serious changes and pain in our family that we will intentional adore Him, praise Him, and rejoice in Him!
~s
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