Sisters, Starbucks and Playground Games

I am sitting in Starbucks.  I know that a big surprise to those who know me (insert sarcasm here).  It's a common hangout for me whenever I feel the urge to put pen to paper fingers to keyboard.  I am always surprised at how much I can learn about any number of people just by sitting quietly in here and listening to what is going on around me.  For instance, I now know the guy behind me is getting ready to place a large order for some sort of equipment and the two ladies across from me are having trouble with their grown children.  The lady by the door is spilling her guts about her marriage woes to someone on the phone and the two in the corner are gossiping about "that really conservative church over there in that metal building where all the women wear long skirts with their hair in a bun and there ain't nary a drop of make-up among the bunch of them!"

I am amazed on a regular basis how if you give an American a cup of coffee and a lap top they consider themselves in their own little private world with no one else around them.  It's just like most guys when they get in a car.  They think they are invisible to the world around them.  Have you ever just taken time to watch guys in the car in a traffic jam on the interstate?  It can be quite entertaining!

I was pondering this sad state of affairs over my vanilla latte and I came to a conclusion.  It's merely a symptom of today's society.  We all go along so disconnected with each other we have become almost unaware of anyone not directly in our scope of influence.  This wasn't always the case.  In years past, it took community to survive. People got together to raise a barn, to harvest a crop, to build a church, to celebrate a wedding, a birth, a life departed.  People just plain got together.  Now, in this information age where you can find out just about anything you could ever want to know about a person with a click of a button, we, so many times, find ourselves disconnected. 

It's like this, I could know J's birthday, anniversary date, his social security number, where he banks, where he shops, what he drives, even what he has for lunch every day, but if I don't know that it's a Wyoming sunset that moves his heart, that he dreams of owning his own business, that he has a passion for his work with the boys in Royal Rangers, the other means nothing.  If I can't know his heart, I don't know him.  It's very difficult to know someone's heart without spending face to face time with them. 

The fact is, we need each other, we need community.  You see things differently than I do. I can learn from you and you from me, but not if we never take time to learn the other person's heart.   The word says in Hebrews 10:24 -25, and I'm paraphrasing here, but look it up yourself if you don't believe me!   Don't give up meeting together as some are suggesting, but gather together to encourage one another in good works of the Lord. 

Life can be difficult, it can be hard and stressful and down right messy, but it's always a little easier with help.  I have been very blessed to have wonderful friends in my life and my life is enriched by these relationships.  Think of it this way, life is a great big game of red rover, if you have no one to lock arms with, you're in big trouble! lol  Don't find yourself on the playground of your life with no one to come along side and lock arms with you when the enemy comes rushing at you.  Not only that, but it's a little easier to dodge the fiery dodgeballs darts of the enemy when someone has your back. 

All this community stuff takes a little effort on your part, it takes being vulnerable with yourself and others.  It takes opening up your heart and your life and allowing others in.  It can be scary, but it is well worth it.  The playground can be a dangerous place, don't try to walk it alone. 

So this week I challenge you to look around and take inventory of your friend's list, and I don't mean the one on facebook.  I mean the one etched on your heart.  Do you have someone in your life you can be open and honest with?  Are you hiding your heart behind a superficial, business polite approach to any and all who dare to come close?  Ask the Lord to bring that person into your life that laughs at the same people  jokes that you do, that is walking the same way you are, that sees life enough of the way you do that you are compatible, but not so much so that it gets boring, someone you can share your heart with.  J is my best friend, but I find I need other women in my life as well.  He's not exactly the one I turn to when I need to bemoan the rapid approach of menopause, or the great new place I found to get my nails done, or to brainstorm ideas to make walking this "mom thing" a little easier.  I need other women.

So go open up!  Take a chance, find a friend, be a friend! Reach out and up and be wonderfully surprised by what happens.  Your life will be enriched in ways you could never have known.  Meanwhile, I'll be here hanging out with my crew, my posse, my girls, my swap meet (SWAP, sisters with a purpose). 

Just remember, when you hear that old song;  red rover, red rover, send someone right over, lock arms with your sisters, hold you head up high and say " ok life, bring it!"

Till next time, I'm
Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor