Backstage Privileges

As a quick update, I moved back to the Washington, DC area today.  I'll start training tomorrow for my Staff Assistant job in a Congressional office!  

But that's not the point of this post.  As usual, I'm not the point, and I've been especially struck by that in the past few weeks.  My mother has reminded me countless times that I'm not the point, and God has really been working this into me, as I'm beginning to understand and appreciate it.  I was home for about three weeks before coming back to DC for my job, and in that time I have celebrated a friend's 78th birthday, supported and helped a friend stand up to some serious opposition to Jesus, played and laughed with my three nieces, been excited for a friend who's moving to a new state, seen prayers answered when a friend's visa was renewed, watched a friend get baptized, and gone to two weddings.

This is amazing!  None of these things really had to do with me--it was not my birthday, my baptism, my visa, or my wedding.  I was not being persecuted, and my cutie nieces are not my children, yet I got the privilege of being involved in all of these things.  I was a bridesmaid in one of the weddings, between my two good friends Ben and Lauren, who have now been married for two days!  Standing in support of my friends, agreeing with them and lifting them up to God as they begin married life has been such an honor, and this more than anything made me appreciate watching from the sidelines.  God knows we need each other, and He's given us friends to love and support us, and it is such an honor to share people's lives.  I got to learn by watching my friends' relationship, share the joy and fun of their wedding, pray and fight for them when things were difficult, and appreciate the depth and honesty of their walks with God.  All of this, and I was just backstage to their lives, moving around some insignificant props but learning and enjoying it all.

People are a privilege!  It's so easy to enjoy friendships for what we get out of them, but I'm glad to be learning what an honor it is to invest my own time and love in my friends.  Jesus called loving each other the second greatest commandment, second only to loving Him!  So being backstage, turning the focus off of myself to support and honor the people in my life, is an incredibly godly thing.  And like so many things, when we put ourselves aside and obey God, it is SO much fun!  It's wonderful that I am not the point.  I know it sounds funny to say that, and of course I still enjoy attention, but setting myself aside has a secret enjoyment and depth that nothing I can get for myself will equal.

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). While this certainly includes being willing to die for your friends, it also includes being willing to serve them while you live.  That is a life that pleases God!

And honestly, with this gorgeous girl around, who wants to look at me?? :)

Introducing: Introductions

I don't like introductions.  That is, I don't like to read them.  In person or in speeches, they're helpful, informative, and usually quick, but in writing, they drag on so much that I can't take it.  Maybe my college career and the textbooks that went with it are still too fresh on my heels, but pages that somehow require lowercase Roman numerals just make me suspicious.  I've read too many textbooks to trust them, and they make fun books feel like work.  They always lead to a sneaky array of introductions, forewords, prefaces, and who knows what kind of endless books-before-the-book, so I usually skip them.  I suspect most people do this.

Fortunately for me, most people will not be reading my blog, and thus they will not mind that I decided to write an introduction.  I have to admit, despite my bad experiences with them, introductions do have their place, so here goes.  For an explanation of the title, see the link to the right.  I've been wanting to do some writing for a while, to get better at it, and just to organize my thoughts.  Life is exciting and God's work in mine is reality.  I learn better if I pay attention, and what He is teaching me is worth recording.  At this point I don't really have a main theme in mind for my blog, but here I am in writing it, so please bear with my eclectic topics and just general inexperience in blogginess.  I enjoy my random thoughts, and I would enjoy hearing any of yours too!

If you decide to skip my introduction, I will never know and never be offended!  If you read it, thanks, and I will leave you with this thought from a woman looking back at her own life and her own writing.  Like her, I don't want to be so wrapped up in myself that I can't appreciate the things I'm learning, but I want to take seriously the things that shape us and mold our lives.  I found this quote in, yes, an introduction, and it makes me wonder how many gems I've missed in years of introduction avoidance.

"Besides, I have a certain respect for the early efforts of this struggling adolescent, who now seems so many lives removed from the self of today.  I can laugh at her and am often embarrassed by her, but I do not want to betray her.  Let her speak for herself."
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Bring Me a Unicorn, 1972.