Monday, October 17, 2011

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 62

Today's Daily 5:

  1. wearing jeans at work
  2. purple orchids (some of the flowers I was arranging this morning)
  3. the hug and attentive listening of a friend
  4. hearing Jesus' truth and healing as a new friend shared her journey with a room full of strangers
  5. being with people who felt a bit like my "tribe"
  6. the quiet grace of spilled tears
  7. spicy chai, and ethiopian stew
  8. a late night bus ride home with time to pray and ponder
  9. books I'm still enjoying
  10. crawling into bed at the end of a very long day

Sometimes I Forget...

Sometimes I forget that Jesus loves and knows me.

That when I simply can't, He still knows.

I was reminded of that the other night, as I hung up my phone.

Despite being a (mostly raging) introvert, I have struggled often with loneliness, and lately have been attempting self-care in the form of making sure that I have quality time with people to feed that part of my heart.

The last week or so, though, I simply haven't had the energy to initiate, and to make sure that outings like this were on my calendar.

And yet, as I hung up my phone, I was reminded that Jesus knows my needs, often before I would even recognize them.

In the next week, I expected to have very little social interaction, simply because I had no energy to arrange for them.  I knew I needed it, but I just couldn't make it happen.

Instead, though, I've got several engagements on my calendar.

I unexpectedly shopped with a friend on the weekend.  Tonight I'm attending a local gathering of people passionate about missions.  I'm going with friends, to hear a mutual acquaintance speak about her time as a midwife overseas.  Tomorrow I'm having dinner with a long time friend.  And later this week I have house church.

And so, as I hung up the phone on an unexpected call the other night, asking if I wanted to have dinner, I was reminded that Jesus knows and sees and loves me, and that sometimes, when I just can't quite find the energy or strength to reach out, He takes care of that as well.  And there was joy and peace in that simple reminder.