I just met up with some friends that I haven't seen (or really even talked to) in over a decade.
I didn't realize until I was talking to them just how much of an influence they have had on my life.
I met Carissa right before I turned 22. I had been out of bible school a year and just left my job as an interim children's pastor and Jr. High youth pastor to become a missionary in downtown Dallas, Tx.
Carissa and I worked this little coffee shop in a part of town called Deep Ellum. Our job was to give coffee to the tattoo artists and punk rockers and homeless that inhabited that neighborhood and tell them all about Jesus.
That part didn't work out that well. Not a soul was saved by our efforts.
What did work was the conversations that we had. Carissa introduced me to pacifism and helped me to articulate some of the big questions that I was having about the government and the church and a lot of other things.
She was a person of principle who actively lived out her values. She was kindness and empathy personified.
Soon after I met her, she and I both met her future husband Don.
Don looks like a total square insurance salesman or something. Especially in contrast to Carissa's embodied hippy aesthetic.
But they are both people committed to a simple and intentional life dedicated to justice and peace.
I lived with them in a communal living situation for a spell. They are the ones that convinced me to move to Colorado.
Back in the day we would sit and talk for hours about Jesus and politics and culture and what a good life is supposed to look like.
We disagreed on a lot—mostly on Jesus stuff—but we remained close.
But then they moved to Portland and have spent the last decade or so on all kinds of crazy adventures. They don't do social media, really, so I would just hear things in passing from mutual friends.
They lived in an RV with their two small children for the last four years. They have traveled the country several times and have lived this kind of wonderful life.
They just opened a little coffee shop down in Colorado Springs where we all used to live. I went down today to surprise them.
If I ever get married, I want a relationship like theirs.
In the meantime, I will try to be like them now: big hearted, compassionate, present, full of joy and possibility.
I want to make sure I love people and allow them to be whatever and wherever they happen to be.
Because that's what Don and Carissa did for me some eleven years ago when my world was crashing down around me and I was desperately trying to figure out what I believed.
I am grateful for them. I want to pay it forward.
I hope I can.
4:24 p.m. - 2016-01-08
Recent entries:
Buddha-ish - 2016-02-05
So I Eat Hot Pockets Sometimes. What Are You Going to do About It? - 2016-01-27
Yes, I recognize that I am being emotional and irrational. Deal with it. - 2016-01-21
School - 2016-01-20
A Prayer - 2016-01-11
My profile
Archives
Notes
Diaryland
Random
RSS
others:
comebacktome
musicman575
aryssa90
i-lost-sarah
stardumb
hexes
gonzoprophet
cybers1ut
movingsands
meffinmisfit
the-grey-one
dangerspouse
silverluna
unowhatilike
elusive-you
tobehis
kenny-loo
brothasistas
my-rant
is-life
godsintimate
ruby--sky
creme-egg
darkly-blue
reevo
similar
dooki
dagkyo
obijuan
newschick
buddyboy5
u2october
nudeplatypus
mojo1915
baby--girl
alwaysinhim
bantenhut
cindylou03
dudemanflab
spittingame
greenstar7
i-am-jack
krunkjazz