Strangelove...

...Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love it All

2012 was the largest year yet, full of big BIG things. 
wonderful/demanding/expectant/frightening/industrious/heart-breaking/beautiful/cold/vibrant/quiet/ear-piercing/wild/breath-taking things.

Our hearts have shattered as they've doubled in size, all in moments filled with glory and wonder. We've rejoiced, mourned, laughed, wept, celebrated, endured, crashed and risen with so many others. The greatest joys and the greatest sorrows. We feel more mature than ever before. We feel more clueless then ever before.

It all came together in a moment last month, while a group of us were caroling at a nursing home. A resident's wife had called us in to sing to her brain damaged husband. We sang a few songs by his bedside, and it wasn't until we were almost done that I noticed his roommate in the corner. A man with pictures from the past covering every inch of the wall above his bed. A man who had no visitors. A man who was mouthing the words to every.single.song we were singing.

We are divinely created for this one exact place, this one exact time and these one exact people around us. Every person. Every. Single. Person. Each and every one we meet. Every story we share, every smile we give, every tear we cry and every song we sing - never ever wasted.

And we may never fully grasp how great a calling that is. God does give us moments of grace, where He pulls back the curtain that so often blinds our eyes, letting us see glimpses of just how connected we are (bound together with love). Love that moves mountains, breaks stone hearts, redeems the broken.

Which brings me back full circle. 2012 was hard for so many. Yes, we have had our own great sorrows, and so often we were called to mourn with others. Too often. A line from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets goes round and round in my head: 'Human kind cannot bear very much reality'. 

But (by grace) more strong than the pull of despair was a call to hope. And love. We are preaching to ourselves and we are preaching to others. To everyone we touch. And Lord only knows how very many people that actually is. 

So I am excited for 2013, no matter how it hurts in the moment. We have a great, shining redemption that is already at work. And we already see it working. In the smallest moments and in the grandest ways: the times we spend together over good food and drink, the books we read, the friends we build, the random pictures we post and the statuses we 'like', the gardens we grow, the beauty our eyes learn to see. And the lonely men touched by Christmas carols. And in the sorrow we share with those around us.  

There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear.

I John 4:18

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