The Importance of Being Earnest
The last few weeks have been a rainstorm of people proving our desperate need for healing.
I sat on Friday night with around 10 of the gals on my floor and we picked up an old tradition, Floor Shabbat. We filled our mugs with grape juice, broke some chocolate covered matzo and I led them in singing the traditional Hebrew blessings.
We then sang the jovial "Shabbat Shalom" song and went around the circle telling our highs and lows of the week, the buzz of traveling was in the air as some were road tripping together, others flying to Spain and Tokyo. One asked for prayer for her family, she began to cry, her distant dad was trying to rebuild bridges.
We read several Psalms, for my own reasons I have been digging into chapters 32-38, and I shared with them what these passages meant to me.
Afterwards the same one who had asked for prayer asked if we could go somewhere to talk about something that was heavy on her heart. I could read what it was immediately. I knew that look well on my own face many times. My heart rejoiced although I reigned it in. This is the very reason I am a lifegroup leader, to see growth and transformation in the lives of the ladies on my floor.
We went up to Joe's, it was late about 10:30pm and the Baristas turned off the music. I reached for my phone as the student remarked how it was harder to talk when the music stopped. I went to my playlist I made of obscure German Music and played it, she looked at the title and laughed, "How I ronic, Wunderlust, Lust that is exactly my problem."
Lust, loneliness, men, motherhood, whether or not we are desirable. We talked about these things. "I wouldn't have mentioned it to anyone, but have told us in lifegroup about your own story, and I wanted to get it off my chest."
When we started talking I listened and asked questions, something I have picked up from my counseling major roommate. This student was defeated, wondering if what she felt was really a sin or not, someone she asked and looked up to said it wasn't. But why then did it eat away at her?
I told her "only sins have the power to make us feel that way, it is sexual immorality. It is ugly and not what those good and godly desires are supposed to look like." I asked her more questions, and we stayed until midnight when Night Crew kicked us out. She transformed near the end of our conversation, from defeated to dignified, from beaten to beautiful, she told me the dreams she had of being a mother, raising a family, making a home. Similar dreams in my own equally single heart, and I wondered how it was that we had the same vices and the same dreams, if maybe that very sin is the one most hindering to those beautiful desires.
She gave me the warmest hug, her heart was lighter, as was mine. This I believe is the importance of being earnest, if I hadn't been open about the work God was doing in my own life, I fear we neither of us could have experienced that encouragement.
I sat on Friday night with around 10 of the gals on my floor and we picked up an old tradition, Floor Shabbat. We filled our mugs with grape juice, broke some chocolate covered matzo and I led them in singing the traditional Hebrew blessings.
We then sang the jovial "Shabbat Shalom" song and went around the circle telling our highs and lows of the week, the buzz of traveling was in the air as some were road tripping together, others flying to Spain and Tokyo. One asked for prayer for her family, she began to cry, her distant dad was trying to rebuild bridges.
We read several Psalms, for my own reasons I have been digging into chapters 32-38, and I shared with them what these passages meant to me.
Afterwards the same one who had asked for prayer asked if we could go somewhere to talk about something that was heavy on her heart. I could read what it was immediately. I knew that look well on my own face many times. My heart rejoiced although I reigned it in. This is the very reason I am a lifegroup leader, to see growth and transformation in the lives of the ladies on my floor.
We went up to Joe's, it was late about 10:30pm and the Baristas turned off the music. I reached for my phone as the student remarked how it was harder to talk when the music stopped. I went to my playlist I made of obscure German Music and played it, she looked at the title and laughed, "How I ronic, Wunderlust, Lust that is exactly my problem."
Lust, loneliness, men, motherhood, whether or not we are desirable. We talked about these things. "I wouldn't have mentioned it to anyone, but have told us in lifegroup about your own story, and I wanted to get it off my chest."
When we started talking I listened and asked questions, something I have picked up from my counseling major roommate. This student was defeated, wondering if what she felt was really a sin or not, someone she asked and looked up to said it wasn't. But why then did it eat away at her?
I told her "only sins have the power to make us feel that way, it is sexual immorality. It is ugly and not what those good and godly desires are supposed to look like." I asked her more questions, and we stayed until midnight when Night Crew kicked us out. She transformed near the end of our conversation, from defeated to dignified, from beaten to beautiful, she told me the dreams she had of being a mother, raising a family, making a home. Similar dreams in my own equally single heart, and I wondered how it was that we had the same vices and the same dreams, if maybe that very sin is the one most hindering to those beautiful desires.
She gave me the warmest hug, her heart was lighter, as was mine. This I believe is the importance of being earnest, if I hadn't been open about the work God was doing in my own life, I fear we neither of us could have experienced that encouragement.
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