In Him: A Journey through Darkness

 We were all here, we all experienced it. It was crazy, it was painful, it was strange, it was alarming, it was frightening and it was so many things, varying from person to person. 

I'm not pretending to know what you're experience of this year has been - I'm not. So let's get that right out of the way. You are you and I am me and we are not the same. What was that saying I kept seeing floating around on the socials this year?; "we are all floating in the same ocean, but in different vessels. Our experiences are not the same.

However badly I just botched that, it's true and I get it so I'm not going to sit here and tell you to be happy, that it was joyful, that you should feel "so blessed." I'm just not. 

I did lose loved ones, I witnessed people very close to me have close brushes with death and there was a lot of pain in this sea of chaos. But overall, it was pivotal. It was life-changing and I want to just share with you my takeaways because I wrote them down. 

If we let this year go without taking the lessons we learned with us, it wins doesn't it? This can't have all been in vain. My hope is that while I cannot change your experience, that my words might inspire you and that you might add them to your own takeaways from the year and see a little beauty from the proverbial ashes.

So here we go. 

Love others extravagantly...

  People need love, period. They need to see it and feel it. Show others love in all the ways; in the big  ways and in the small ways...the world needs to see every form of it that we can. 

 Listen intently...

 This is a large part of love, but important enough to stand on its own. Back in the Spring I was                 looking around at all the disagreement surrounding the realness and severity of Covid-19, around              the racial discord in the world and I realized many people weren't listening. 

 This goes for anything, really. To understand others and to really understand what's going on around us we must listen and to listen, we must be quiet. We must do this if we are ever going to walk in wisdom because the truth is? We don't know what everyone is going through. We don't know things we haven't experienced. 

Moreover, we must listen to what's really being said. We must hear into what is being said. 

James K.A. Smith says to really know a person and understand them, we must ask these things,             “What do you want? What do you love? Because if I know this, I know who you are.”

 So when you're listening, make sure you're listening into what's being said. I learned that I had really been missing so very much. 

Meet people and love them where they are...

People are in high & low places. We need to be able to get high or low to where they are to really reach them, to love them. To have our love best felt and received, we must    

We can't always do it from where we are, we must get into the space 

Be bold and courageous...

In love and in everything, say what is right and true. Don't be scared to share what matters. Live your life boldly & authentically, as you have been purposed, speak the truth and love in full color, not half-heartedly. 

 Pay close attention to tribulation...

We already knew this, but if God has taught us anything in 2020 it's that he will bring beauty from the messes. There are lessons to be learned from hard things and we don't always see them at the time - in fact, we rarely do - but they are there to grow from. 

Good things grow from dirt if we nurture the dirt, right? We don't see the fruit that's coming before it has had time to grow. 

Creativity is in everything...

I already knew this, it's a truth I stand on and live my life by - but this year we have really had to stretch our creativity. It isn't limited to a way to do things and a way to not  or to the right brained over the left. It is in all things. 

 It's in how we love one another, in how we speak and communicate, it's in how we  work, how we convey our thoughts and express our feelings, it's in how we worship, how we do "church". 

 In how we entertain our children or visit with our older generation. It's in how we serve so others can see the goodness of the world. There is creativity everywhere and we are all creative if we stretch ourselves and allow that creativity to flow. 

Write...

 When life happening to you and around you happens, write. We don't know what's coming tomorrow, we don't know how things are going to change. Write it down. 

 Our stories matter. Your stories matter. Words are impactful and even the short, meaningless nothing you jot down about a thought or experience you flitted through in your day might turn into something more profound that will make an impact on another person. 

 So many things that happened this year I took the time to write - random thoughts that popped into my busy mind, sermon notes, prayers, thought-provoking things that I read. These things led to big ideas that I used to reach others, they led to gifts, they led to the very plans I've written for the year to come. Writing these things has not only impacted others in the short term {when I shared them}, but inspire me to create beautiful pieces of art I otherwise wouldn't have created. I learned lessons that stuck that I may have forgotten later. 

Mainly, though, writing helped me process the world that seemed to be spinning out of control around me at times.

 Write it down. Who knows where it will go and what history books you might be used in in years to come ;) 

Life is precious...

Here is another obvious one, but every single person and every moment matters. Every living thing matters. 

 We need to treat them that way, we need to treat everyone l like they matter because we never know when an opportunity to spend time might be taken away. 

  Also, moreover, with so many hurting in this world people need to know that they matter and that we believe that. 

Simplicity gives meaning...

 We've really scaled back this year and had to simplify. That has been hard for many - businesses struggling, people having job issues and furloughs and layoffs, parents struggling with remote students...I know. I won't pretend those things aren't hard. 

But for the most part in the midst of that struggle, we simplified how we spent our time. We spent more time with immediate family, in our homes. We were far more involved in the education of our kids. We reached out to friends near and far, neighbors, loved ones to check in on them, to offer help or condolences or just a simple, "I'm thinking of you."

 Our kids played in the dirt, they used their imaginations and came up with creative ways to spend their time. 

 Those things were happening before, but not like this year. No, this year those things rose back high in our priorities, over the busy-busy and go-go-go that usually keeps us running fast, losing all track of time. 

And yes, there were simple things I missed, too; but the distance didn't equal disconnection. If anything, I think we really changed how we reach out and how important we know it is to take the time to do so.       

 It all belongs to God...

 None of this is ours. Not our time, not our space, not the tiny things in our day to day that we take for granted. 

  It's His.