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there's a song i was singing yesterday that ends with 'alive forevermore' being sung over and over and i couldn't help but think about what the manifestation of God's alive forevermore-ness is in my life - and in the lives of so many people i know and don't know.

so when i look at it even in the scope of my short life i think about all the moves my family has made - and how each one has helped me grow either a little or a lot more. and how i (thankfully) escaped the midwest and the south with no accent. i think about all the friends i've made and lost touch with, or made and kept and treasure. i think about my sweet family who just keeps growing and growing and producing sweet new lives that make my heart want to explode. i think about the incredible life changing move i made to this gigantic city and how i can't think of one prayer or fun thought that's entered my head that hasn't been answered with a fat YES. which is exciting and sweet to say the very, very least.

growing up - my favorite thing about my family and any house we lived in was the open door policy. the 'don't knock on the door'/get yourself a drink/stay after we go to bed/sleep where you drop/eat our food vibe that my parents always did a really good job of making a reality. i always wanted that for the home i made on my own someday.

so this past week and weekend was filled with the in and outs of people i love dearly, people i can see myself loving dearly, people i just met, and even people i'm not that crazy about. but all of it was so wonderful because it felt like home. sitting in my cozy living room with various people who have vastly different stories and being reminded (as if i needed a reminder) of how dearly i love this city for all the different perspectives and passions it brings to the table. musicians, med students, fashion design people, yoga teachers, starbucks managers, nurse practitioners, teachers, bar tenders, psych majors, trader joe's cashiers... but we all have Jesus and the city in common. so whether we were talking, or listening to music, or singing and playing instruments, or vacuuming - it felt important. life-giving, even.

i read this verse today in romans (5:2) and it immediately made me do that, "ooo i'm so excited to know you, God" thing that i do when i get slapped across the face with the beauty of Jesus...

"And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand - out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise."

and i thought joy... you're doing it. you're experiencing the alive-forevermoreness right now on this train. and you experienced it all week with these different passionate people. and you experienced it last night in a room full of people who were praying from deep down in their pretty little hearts with such intentionality for a new church parish. and then after that, experiencing it again as i sang with abandon. the kind that actually makes you sound better because you've only ever been encouraged by these people.

so if you aren't connecting yourself with and digging your heels in with a group of people that make you sense the ailve-forevermoreness of a God who spent it all to give you the option to say no thanks or sign me up... run. run and find out where you can do that.