Right now, I am fascinated by the seemingly random paths life takes us down, by the strangers God puts in our lives, or perhaps, those we put there ourselves. For, when we first meet, we are all strangers. We are all new, foreign to one another. We do not know who someone is to become to us – what they are to become. Will they be liked? Feared? Revered? Maybe forgotten? Or perhaps needed, wanted, loved?
I find myself too hasty to offer my predication, unwittingly, a lot of the time. I numbly make it resolute, whether in preparing my unsaid, unnecessary goodbyes to someone I never walk with anyway, or in seeing a worth and a future in someone who has not yet earned it, and perhaps never will. In making my assumptions, I wonder how much of my story goes astray? Am I missing meaning; purpose? Am I ignoring lessons, ones that in my hastiness I might be causing to come up – untaught – again and again? Am I open to the adventures that could be? Or am I busy decorating dull moments with unwarranted images of the things I’ve always dreamed? Or is it all as it should be, mistakes and all? I don’t know. But I’m thinking I want to take my finger off the trigger God so securely has in His hands.
Right now, you and I are a perfect example. I wonder where you and I will be in 10 years. Five, or even one. Will we still be talking? Will we be good friends? Or will we become memories that slowly fade away? Will we be kindred spirits – partners in crime (at a much lesser distance)? Or will we be recounting this very conversation in a well-travelled VW van? Amongst this lies the possibility that we may never meet.
So far to me, you are bold, gifted, driven. You have a mind that stretches out and around, thinking and impressing, and a mighty heart that follows. You are adored, influential… maybe indignant – perhaps stubborn, I’m not yet sure. You are tired; at the same time restless. You are vulnerable, hopeful, passionate. You inspire. Hugely. You have an incredible eye, an anointed ear. You like good music, you read good books. You are liked. By me.
I wonder what this happening looks like from where God sits. Is it big? Is it small? Is it His? It’s a big thought to think of why any two people meet – we meet random people every day. What makes one meeting more significant than another? In our story, you may be here to teach me something, I may be here to teach you. You may be here to wake me up, I may be here to cheer you on. Maybe we’re here to share things, or maybe we’re here to be much quieter, less significant. Or maybe we’re here to be loud. Whatever it is, I am fascinated by potential. And doing the right things to get it there.
I’ve never really thought about any of this before. I don’t know why I am now. Maybe it’s because you asked me to write you a letter, and today you told me to blog. I think I was just moved, in knowing you and not knowing you at the same time, to step back and look at just how precious a new friendship can be. Maybe this is what I was supposed to write, although I’m not even sure I’ll send it. But maybe this is a little part of the meaning in what us knowing each other is about.
1 Comment
August 23, 2008 at 9:27 pm
No frayed ends…just colourful thoughts and interlaced ideas leading to a tapestry that can be held up, demanding of the onlooker….”Look at me! Know me! …and in so doing, you may know a little more of yourself.”
You thoughts are so right on.