rising to the surface

Amazing what intentional downtime... escape from work... deep conversations with friends who know you better than most... raw & honest chats with God in the silence and space of an empty house... and getting out of your familiar surroundings... will do.

Hopes. Fears. Dreams. Revelations.
Desires that you've pushed away, out of sight.
unbidden... come rising to the surface.

I want to write. But more than that, I want my life to matter. I want to write things that matter.
I want to live... no, truly LIVE...
I want to grow and to cultivate growth... to learn and cultivate learning... to understand and cultivate understanding.
I want my life to communicate value--in everything I say/do--to those who aren't valued. Because God says they ARE valuable.
I want to love well: truly, deeply, fiercely, relentlessly LOVE... each person I meet, in the way that communicates love most clearly to THAT person.

With this reminder from my soul sister: "If your doctrine doesn't border on the heretical, then you don't know the God of the Bible."

And this reminder from the Holy Spirit: "We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people proud. But love builds them up. Those who think they know something still don’t know as they should." (1 Corinthians 8:1b-2, NIRV)

The things that are making my spirit quicken, my mind wrestle, and my heart strive to understand more, deeper... cultures, languages, people, and Jesus.
I have MUCH to learn.