Gwen's Questions are a Sign of the Kingdom

The Hi Life. No Legal or Illegal Drugs Were Consumed. Just Good Food

We got to sit down to eat with some sweet friends from Arlington who came all of the way to Seattle to see us. Maybe not just to see us (there was a cruise ship waiting to whisk them away to Alaska), but it was sweet nonetheless.

Gwen looked at the owl covered lunch bag Adrienne brought for our little picky eater and asked where we got it.

"We got it second hand. Someone gave it to us"

I was surprised at how interested our server was at my little girl's food carrier, but she went on to explain. She explained that she looks for fun things like pink owl lunch bags on a site where people in Ballard (her neighborhood in Seattle) give away things for free. Its like an ongoing, online swap meet. She said she likes to give things away, too, because it helps her "relinquish."

Most people don't talk about "relinquishing." When they do, there always seems to be an interesting story behind it. So, we started talking to her about why she wants to "relinquish."

I will spare you most of the conversation, but, to sum up, Gwen shared how she is a "spiritual" lady who does not want to be cluttered with stuff. As someone who just moved, I get "cluttered," for sure.

Thankfully, the restaurant wasn't crazy busy, so she could spend some time with us and talk about "relinquishment" and "community." She said her spirituality didn't need any religion, but she loved that she lived surrounded by people that would help her along her path, even in the little things of taking the things that she wanted to give away.

I briefly shared with her that I could appreciate so much of what she was saying because we came to the city, in part, to live in community similar to what she was describing, but centered on Jesus. She was very kind in her responses, but it was clear that she didn't want to hear much more than that...or so I thought.

We said "thank you" to Gwen and we were waving good-bye when she ran up to us at the door to talk one more time.

"Please, tell me a little more about why you are here and what your church is about."

That stunned me. Most people run from that conversation. She longed to hear more.

So, we got to share with her that we long for heart connections with people too and that we want people to walk alongside us as we "relinquish" the things that hold us back. The difference though, is that the only way to thew community our hearts long for is first to be transformed to center our lives on Jesus. We got to share that real relinquishment comes when we allow God to transform us.

I wish the conversation was as neat and tidy as I am portraying it to be here, but I am trying to describe what I saw in the face and heard in the words of Gwen that night: I saw the Spirit of God speaking to the heart of our server in a way that completely surprised me. He was whispering to her in a way I could never describe, but it was an obvious sign of the kingdom for me.

We left the conversation that way after giving her our contact information. Pray with us that she will connect with other believers. Hopefully it will be us.

How Many Owls Can You See in This Picture?

God uses donkeys, stutterers like Moses, fearful people like me, and a little girl's owl lunch bag to show that he still seeks to save the wanderers...and to reach out to a precious woman named Gwen in Ballard.

Not Good for Man(kind) to Be Alone

Even introverts need people. I smiled so much on Saturday my face got tired.

Last Saturday morning was the Magnolia Summerfest parade. This parade was our first so I didn't really know what to expect from the entire event. I decided to volunteer in order to get to know people by working alongside them. I thought that "trash picker upper" sounded like an easy job.

I was voluntold that I would be, not "trash picker upper" or "horse cleaner after," but Parade Staging Manager. The word is that everyone loves a parade, except for the Staging Manager. (I think I skipped class the day that we talked about helping organize a parade in seminary. That's another story.)

What a clown!

There were great crowds of people lining the streets. Of all of the time we have spent going to community events, nothing no nothing compared to this. People stopped all of the important things in their lives to come out and see clowns on oversized tricycles and grown men dressed as pirates. (Not that there is anything wrong with that :) Candy was thrown to the kids in abundance and parents all got to take a break from trying to be their children's entertainers for an hour.

Thankfully, no children were Shanghaied...this year.

About the time that the large marching band went through and I finally started to figure out what I was doing, I saw something in the crowds that encouraged me: people didn't just come for the clowns and the pirates, they came to be together. The parade entries were a good excuse.

In a neighborhood where so many people are "alone together," busy being social but oftentimes disconnected from heart-friendships, a parade is a safe way to share experiences but not share ourselves.

But just the fact that people came at all shows me that we all know something that we may not want to admit: we need real relationships. We need to be able to stop telling the world that we have it all together and to be able to be safe in a friendship defined by (real) forgiveness and (committed) acceptance.

The problem is that we know "us" too well. We know that we will not receive grace from another because we know we don't give grace. We know that we will have to be changed to be close to another person and we treasure that sin more than the possible relationship. We know that the vulnerability that is necessary to have a heart-friendship is costly.

I didn't make a hundred new friends on Saturday. I may have made a significant connection with 3 people. Maybe. But, what encourages me is that people still have a longing for real community within the neighborhood. The people, each one made in God's image, who gathered around a parade on Saturday are still longing for relationship.

The only way that longing will ever be filled is if Jesus transforms our fearful and self-righteous hearts and remakes us into people who come together for a different reason: because we are loved too much to (dangerously) stay safely away from real relationship with Jesus and one another.

We need to smile more deeply than we are willing to, but we will never do that alone.