I am glad that it is not all about the way things start but how they continue from the start. I moved downtown Lynchburg 6 months ago now but it feels as if five years have gone by, in a good way though…with some bad mixed in too. It’s like eating brownies and not knowing there is nuts in the brownies (I don’t like nuts in brownies), they are good but then there are little pieces that just are not very delightful. Moving downtown instead of moving to DC was the best decision I have ever made. I am quite blown away at the process behind it that led me to where I am today…sitting in my cubicle writing this blog thanks to the question of a friend who I met three days ago and would never had met if I had not moved downtown.
I would like this little blog to be about God and the things He is doing in my life. I feel the best way to prepare the way is by sharing the glorious journey of meeting and falling in love with the most beautiful people ever who have over the past 6 months brought healing and refreshment to my life. So we will start with a friend called Patrick Rush who persistently and lovingly tried to get me to come hang out downtown Lynchburg. I kept saying no because I was tired or because I wanted to go to DC instead. Well, one glorious evening I got off work at the Call Center grumpy and depressed as usual. My phone rang, it was Patrick inviting me to hang out with his band to smoke hookah. I said no, of course, and then a voice came on the line…it was a Stephen Baker who demanded I come over and bring my hookah. I conceded but with full intension of leaving within 30 minutes of my visit. 7 hours later, IHOP syrup bottle sing alongs and the “Penis Drop” had my heart in love with some of the coolest people ever: Kendall Yoder, Jeanette Beswick, Grace Singletary, Stephen Baker, Jenny Blanzy, and Peyton Yeatts. One night later, I hung out with them all again watching movies and drinking margaritas which resulted in my calling Patrick the next day telling him that I was going to move downtown and invest in these people because they were awesome and I was willing to risk it. So two weeks later with the help of my new found friends I was happily settled into a small apartment downtown. My little one bedroom apartment held a great deal of rooftop hookah times, family meals, and Modern Family watching. Those first few months of downtown led me to realizing what I had been missing: community. My heart had been aching and broken and my relationship with God was full of rebellion and anger…I was alone and lost before I moved downtown. I brought that with me and have learned a great deal of what not to do in community [Future Blog to Come on Community]. It also brought about deeper relationships with people I had already known and have grown to love more and more...Jenn Abbott. It was a lot of fun just hanging out, watching movies, drinking wine, smoking hookah, biking, and coffee shopping…but God did not want it to remain like that foreverJ. A couple of us wanted to spend time in prayer for our community and friends and with a newly found friend Mike Mcsherry whose friendship was helping me remember God loved me and wanted me, we all ventured into an attempt to be in prayer as a body of believers. It didn’t last long L but it started a thought and desire to be more than just a group of friends hanging out but to be a body who moved together to help each other and our community. But like the ring of power in Lord of the Rings the desire for more lay dormant…months went by. I became dear friends with two of the coolest girls ever Lauren Baker and Millie Coleman which led to me living with them. Another unexpected blessing of community!
All summer was leading up to this one blessed night as far as friends connecting me to other friends…but it wasn’t just the summer that was leading up to this night…it was my whole life being in love with unicorns. This love of unicorns brought me to buying a unicorn pillow pet. This pillow pet brought about a divine meeting of two kindred souls, one of which was Timbre Cierpke. 1 month later, with one unicorn hug and 15 minutes of friendship later Stephen Baker and I began a journey that would destroy life as we knew it.
Stephen and I went and hung out with Timbre for a weekend in which we laughed, cried, read bed time stories, drank moonshine, and had our hearts shaped and filled by God. Timbre is one of those people that show you Christ. They love you and touch you to the point where you can never be the same again. Timbre let’s God use her and fill her…and that weekend left Stephen and I in this place of knowing that the journey that we had begun with prayer only months before needed to be started again. We began to fast and pray for our hearts, our friends, our community, and the Spirit of God to fill us. Ever since that time in the beginning of October God has been bringing more and more broken and weary hearts into His presence that I have been able to be blessed by. Lauren Druash and Mel Woodall are the most beautiful women I have ever met who have prayed and cried with me even though I have just met them.
…this weekend was a time of intense refreshment and promise. God calls us to hard paths and journey’s but He never leaves us alone to do them. This weekend I got to meet two new friends Mel Woodall and Mason Self…they are representatives of God’s love and calling as have all the friends I have met over the last 6 months.
And well friends… this is where I am now...thanks for letting me share with you the journey’s of my life. Now that you know the people I journey with let me share with you the things I am learning with them!
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