thankful on a thursday—friendship

I cannot believe all the amazing people God's put in my life. Tonight, sitting at my kitchen table with a little Jack Johnson on in the back ground, I am overwhelmed by the women and even a few men I get to be in community with on a regular basis. The more time I spend with people, the more I KNOW that we are not meant to be alone. We are not meant to live independently of one another.

We are meant to be in one another's lives. Not just when the house is clean and there's a delicious meal to be shared, but when the house is a mess and I haven't showered in three days, and I'm on the verge of an emotional breakdown. That is when it is the MOST important to open the door and let my friends in.

It can be SO DIFFICULT to let people into my mess, but it is so much better than the alternative, which is loneliness and fear. The fear that led me to plop down in the middle of the mess, certain that life would always look and feel like this, dissipates when another person sits in that place with me, with YOU, with us. Why miss out on that in an attempt to appear perfect, to try and prove that I've got it all figured out? THERE IS NO GOOD REASON TO DO THAT. Yeah, that was a rhetorical question, but I answered it anyway because I want to be VERY CLEAR that I am learning that community exists because God, in all His infinite wisdom, knew that we couldn't make it through the mess alone.

What about you, is it easy to let people in? Or are you slower to let others in?

1. FRIENDSHIP
2. Handwritten cards and letters
3. The anticipation of a Friday evening run that will push my running limits
4. The Wednesday Farmer's Market
5. Rodeo
6. Laughter with friends
7. The joy that comes when we share and bear each others burdens
8. Stove popped pop corn with kale chips and garlic
9. Celebrating with friends
10. Coffee dates with friends that cover the mundane, the profound, and everything in between
11. The anticipation in the four minutes before the the first cup of french press