I
absolutely love the entire movie experience! The dark theater, dreamy smell of
popcorn, sticky floors, and squeaky seats that I swear are going to swallow me
whole one of these days. I even love the previews and silly advertisement
enticing you to purchase overly priced soda and raisonettes.
Awhile
back my best friend and I took a rare trip to the movies, because lets be real
when tickets are $10 bucks a pop and you’re a college student who is living on
coffee and stale cereal, a movie is something you have to save all your pennies
for.
Anyways,
I kept hearing this awful crunching sound throughout the movie and was
seriously perturbed. Picture a beaver gnawing on cement [not pretty]. I look
over and am horrified to realize that the noise is coming from my sweet friend
biting her nails. Bless her. In my head I had a vision of me pouncing over the
seat, with popcorn and milk duds flying everywhere to swiftly and effectively
tie her hands up so she can no longer bring her fingers anywhere near her
mouth. However I am neither a ninja, nor capable of ignoring common social
rules that frown upon manic outbursts in public. [clearly I’m the one with
issues, not her ;) ]
I
have thought about whether the disciples got annoyed with each other. Maybe
Peter’s feet stunk more than the others, or John always left food in his beard,
or James sang off key. [Side note: nowhere in the bible does it mention any of
this, it’s just how my brain works]. When you do life with someone it’s messy. You
get annoyed with ridiculous things that if it were anyone else it would NEVER
bother you.
For
the first time in my life I can truly say I have a group of people who know my
darkest secrets and flaws but who accept me in full. I had a unique college experience.
Living in a small town of nothing you pretty much spend every waking moment
with your friends sitting around doing…well…. NOTHING. A party hard night
included fro-yo and board games. My friends are night and day opposites of each
other. But we all have one thing that bonds us, Jesus. Our love for Him is the
tread of our friendship.
We
occasionally got annoyed, quit talking to each other for a day, threw pity
parties, and spoke in anger when we should have spoken in love. Bottom line: we
were real and imperfect. Jesus used these friends to teach me a valuable lesson
that I will take with me into new friendships and hopefully one day into
marriage.
Relationships take choice,
acceptance, and commitment. Jesus chose me (John 15:6) and the moment He went
to the cross, again He committed to His love for me. Being vulnerable and
transparent with Him has then translated into being that way with my friends.
Humans are flawed, we still get annoyed and disappoint each other but I choose
to allow His grace to help me ignore fear of being “exposed” and let them in.
Turning my face to the One who
knows every inch of it is hard for me sometimes. On occasion I attach human
attributes to my Father. That He is annoyed with me, or refuses to speak until
I admit He’s right or until I make Him a sandwich [just kidding about the
sandwich]. His desire for us to be transparent with Him is fierce. His
acceptance of us is pure. He doesn’t want us to sit in our mess because of that
grace (Romans 6:1), but He doesn’t walk away in our imperfections. Glory!
Hallelujah! That deserves a happy dance! [[My Happy Dance: refer to an earlier
post]]
Go to Him. Sit as His feet and
breath in His goodness. Let Him hide you beneath His wings as He teaches you to
be vulnerable (psalm 57:1, psalm 91:4). He had to teach me, I had NO IDEA what
that looked like. I wouldn’t trade this lesson for anything. And I wouldn’t
trade my unique, hilarious, and extraordinary friends with all their flaws for
anything either. They have my heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment