Holding Onto the Good

We all affect one another whether we realize it or not. We are part of one another's stories and we cannot be erased...no matter how good or bad the situation may be, no matter how long or short our meeting might have been.


I am forever changed by the people I have both loved and feared. I love sushi because I was adopted into a family of 9 in Tulsa, OK during my college years. I know how to run a structured classroom because of a principal who chided me for allowing students to sharpen pencils in the middle of the school day, among many other things. I use expressions I never thought I would use all because I have spent time with people who use those same words. There are places, and people, and causes that are so important to me now. I never would have known them without the influence of another.

Life is a beautiful tapestry woven in such a miraculous way. I don't believe that any of us meet by chance. I don't believe that our lives are a series of chaotic and random events. I don't believe it because there are too many reasons to believe that there is a purpose behind it all.

I am aware enough to know that I can easily let people down, because I have. I'm humbled enough to know that there are those who will still love me through the years and despite my imperfections. This kind of friendship means more than anything in the world. It's the kind of friendship I long to extend.

There is a profound depth to our souls...so deep sometimes that we do not realize the connections that are made or the impact of those connections. I do not step out of my door without remembering. I do not hear a sound or a song without the accompaniment of the past. The smell of school supplies alone will send me back to childhood and what it was like to anticipate a fresh season of learning. Who knew, that many years later, I would stand in front of the class shaping the minds of my very own students? Who knew that the circumstances I faced would help me to connect with the circumstances of the lives of the little ones that I see every day?

Yes, memory is an inevitable side effect of time. It lends itself to the tasks of either detriment or fruitfulness in our lives. We get to decide. If we long to move forward, if we long for the fruit of love in our lives, we can no longer complain that "he did this" or "she did that". It must become "because of ___, I will now ____". No more victim mentality to the throws of the past. No more lying down and letting painful memories trample our hearts. At some point, the ashes will become a beautiful masterpiece. It is the faithful promise of a loving God.

So, I can either be thankful that loving someone has changed my life or I can be full of despair at the alterations I did not want to see. Someone said to me once, "It's not about what God is taking out, it's about what He is putting in." I want to see everything in that light. God, what are you making room for? What are you putting into me through knowing these people? What lasting gifts have you given to me even in the seeming loss of what I held so dear?

When we are thankful for the people (good and bad and everything in between) that we have been given (people who literally cross our paths in our every day lives), when we see that God was loving us all along, when we choose to accept the passing of seasons, there is a difference in our lives. It's not about controlling our own perfect circumstances or relationships. It's not about loving or hating everything that someone stood for or still stands for in our lives. It's about choosing to trust...that all of it...every broken piece, every color, every smell, every sound, every word on a page, every place that holds a memory, every musical note in a song...will be redeemed, will be made right, will lend itself to the masterpiece of a beautiful story.

We are better for knowing one another. We are better for the gifts that we give and have been given. We are better for the cleansing and the strengthening that has come through trials. We are better for the chance to know this God for who He really is.

We are better because we are loved by a God who works ALL things together for the good. (Romans 8:18-28)

~1 Thessalonians 5:21~

Test everything. Hold on to the good.