My brother wrote a quote from Francis Chan in my birthday card this year: "Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers."
My life doesn't make seem to make a lot of sense and that's something I treasure. When I started dating my soon-to-be husband, I think most people had a gigantic "?" hovering over the collective he & I. We did not fit. I'm a white girl with red hair raised by two parents who grew up with five brothers, a driveway, and a steady dose of the suburbs church.
He's a brown hunk who grew up in New York City not having a clue about God by a single mom with two siblings who moved out before his sixth birthday.
I don't let people walk on any rugs in my house with shoes. I wash my hands the second I've come in from outside and I frequently wipe down my phone with alcohol.
Angel chews louder than a starved dog, leans on the walls of the subway stations and has a general disdain for hygiene.
In turn - this is our biggest "thing". It's a pretty damn big thing too. He thinks I'm crazy and I think he's disgusting. It doesn't make any sense at all.
But then we're on our way to the gym and my elevator is broken so we see old people and moms trying to get grocery bags and strollers up flights of stairs and we don't even have to look at each other before we silently decide to delay our plans and take each person's baggage and haul it up the stairs to their respective apartment doors.
Or after one of the 59,679 snows we had this winter, when there were thigh-high walls of snow in between the bus stop and the bus - again, not even a look before we just make an assembly line: pass me this kid you get his pregnant mom, we'll come back for grandma.
Our hearts are aligned in that we want our neighbors to be served by a loving God via our very clean and very dirty hands.
My church's byline is "Joining God in the renewal of all things." I came into Angel's territory. He has been in relationships here for 20+ years. I just had my three year anniversary with this neighborhood. I get to join Angel and God in the renewal of my neighborhood. I get a head start with my neighbors because of Angel. And we get to water and see seeds we're currently planting or have planted grow and morph into whatever or whomever they're supposed to be. It's the most rewarding, beautiful, heartbreaking, hilarious, dirty, and amazing life.
I make no sense and get to live life with someone who doesn't make any sense. And that makes perfect sense.
My life doesn't make seem to make a lot of sense and that's something I treasure. When I started dating my soon-to-be husband, I think most people had a gigantic "?" hovering over the collective he & I. We did not fit. I'm a white girl with red hair raised by two parents who grew up with five brothers, a driveway, and a steady dose of the suburbs church.
He's a brown hunk who grew up in New York City not having a clue about God by a single mom with two siblings who moved out before his sixth birthday.
I don't let people walk on any rugs in my house with shoes. I wash my hands the second I've come in from outside and I frequently wipe down my phone with alcohol.
Angel chews louder than a starved dog, leans on the walls of the subway stations and has a general disdain for hygiene.
In turn - this is our biggest "thing". It's a pretty damn big thing too. He thinks I'm crazy and I think he's disgusting. It doesn't make any sense at all.
But then we're on our way to the gym and my elevator is broken so we see old people and moms trying to get grocery bags and strollers up flights of stairs and we don't even have to look at each other before we silently decide to delay our plans and take each person's baggage and haul it up the stairs to their respective apartment doors.
Or after one of the 59,679 snows we had this winter, when there were thigh-high walls of snow in between the bus stop and the bus - again, not even a look before we just make an assembly line: pass me this kid you get his pregnant mom, we'll come back for grandma.
Our hearts are aligned in that we want our neighbors to be served by a loving God via our very clean and very dirty hands.
My church's byline is "Joining God in the renewal of all things." I came into Angel's territory. He has been in relationships here for 20+ years. I just had my three year anniversary with this neighborhood. I get to join Angel and God in the renewal of my neighborhood. I get a head start with my neighbors because of Angel. And we get to water and see seeds we're currently planting or have planted grow and morph into whatever or whomever they're supposed to be. It's the most rewarding, beautiful, heartbreaking, hilarious, dirty, and amazing life.
I make no sense and get to live life with someone who doesn't make any sense. And that makes perfect sense.
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