::dreams, remembering, friends::

So today I had a opportunity to hang out with my friend Melissa. It was a wonderful time of talking about life, and exploring a city that I am new to. I should probably preface all this with some history. I was born and raised in Colorado and now living in Seattle. Melissa was born and raised in Seattle (well near Seattle), moved to Colorado for middle school/high school then moved to Seattle for college and then back to Colorado. We were also neighbors for a year when we lived at the Stonegate apartments in Colorado. In the course of exploring Seattle, I was able to see where she went to college and all that, which was nice since I am fairly new to Seattle (I’ve lived here for less than a month). We then proceed to head to downtown and the waterfront, so I could show her where I will be going to school, Mars Hill Graduate School and get some fish & chips at Ivars. Now to get back to where I was going with all of this. It was a wonderful time, both seeing friends that I miss, and in the course of the conversation, recounting all that has happened in the year.

It all started with recounting how a year ago, almost exactly, we were all moving out of the apartments, which was kind of a sad time since the five of us had a rather good time being neighbors during that time (imagine Friends or something like that), so we were remembering how nice that year was (being neighbors) and how much things have changed and happened in the last year or so. Both of us have experienced the hope and eventual heartache of relationships. We have seen a friend dear to us both get engaged, married and finish law school. Dreams have started, and started to become reality. I was commenting on how crazy it is that I now live in Seattle, how even though it has been a long time dream of mine, that if someone would have asked me a year ago if I thought I would be living in Seattle and getting ready to start my Masters degree, I probably would have laughed (a bit cynically) at them. Yet, here I am, living in Seattle, and classes start September 4th. It was a wonderful time of recounting all that has happened, all that God has done in this time, and how when we forget our dreams, God still remembers. And I think it was further compounded by the fact I was recalling with a dear friend, who has also encouraged me in this dream (we used to talk about Seattle quite a bit at the apartments). I think all of this is important in our journeys, recalling the many motions of the heart and how we have seen God active in our lives, especially in remembering dreams we had long forgotten or given up on. I think I experienced more life in that afternoon than I have in many churches, in recalling all that God has done. I also think it is vitally important in our journeys, since our hearts are usually quick to forget what God has done (think of Moses leading Israel in their forty year desert trek). It is also hard, because, truth be told, those moments are usually few and far between. I guess that is all I have right now, perhaps attribute it to my normal wrestling with life and the church and all that. That is probably one of the greatest reasons why I started down this path, to help people find life in this community we call the church. Ok, I should probably post this, do some reading and head to Seatac to pick up my cousin from the airport. Adios.