I have been stressed out. Like majorly. I have been snapping at people and not showering, these are classic signs of a stressed out amy. I have been mostly stressed about my jobs, today was all about my video job. No matter what I tried my files were falling apart and nothing was working, I was hitting problem after problem and wanting to pull out my hair I was so frustrated. Finally I texted my friend, who I probably shouldn't name on the internet because even though no one really reads this it might be awkward so I am just going to change their name to Dave. So I finally text Dave and ask him if he has any free time to help me because I was just lost. I had been avoiding doing this because I am a control freak and this project was my responsibility so I wanted to figure it out myself and because I didn't want to be a burden to Dave. Well turns out Dave had free time right then and I had the day off so I packed up my gear and headed to his house. Dave and his wife live about 20 miles outside of Boulder in a small, quiet town that I'm absolutely in love with, the leaves are changing right now and its a town right out of a cute calendar. Dave and his wife were just hanging out watching movies downstairs and invited me right in, their house is adorable too by the way. I walked in wearing a weird old flannel, my purple jeans, crazy hair and a stressed face. Dave is so patient and he just oh yeah I've been there. Within a half hour he's figured out everything for me, patiently showing me how to do it and teaching me the finer aspects of final cut. Basically saves my life. Driving home I was on cloud nine. I was reading one of Donald Miller's blog posts this morning and couldn't help thinking about it when I was over at my friend Dave's, Donald said,
"I only have a small condo. But I don’t want it to be a place just for me. I want the stuff in the condo and the food in the pantry and the furniture in the guest room to be for others. I’ve been able to do a little of that in the last year, convert my home into an imitation of God’s place, and in so doing, I’ve discovered a little secret my friend with the ranch must have discovered a long time ago: Managing God’s stuff for the enjoyment and comfort of the people God loves is a blast. It gives meaning to your things, and a feeling of importance to the places you get to live within.
My friend with the ranch has a simple home outside Portland, but it’s a home with a barn attached, and he’s built another barn, not for himself, but so he and his wife can host weddings and events for youth groups. How much better would our homes feel if the living room were the place where that pastor and his family from Eastern Europe came and shared a meal and interacted with our neighbors, or the yard was the place where the soccer team from the school across the street had their barbecue? Our homes would be charged with meaning and character and, well, life! Our entertainment center wasn’t designed so we could watch movies, but so neighbors could come together and watch football while we serve them hamburgers. What if we managed our homes like little meeting places God used to bring people together?"
That's how I felt at Dave's. And that's how I want to make people feel. And it makes me so happy. On the way home I was blasting Jack Johnson's live album, which I stole from someone I won't mention here but eventually I'll give it back, and singing and just loving how God works. I was so stressed I wanted to die today but what I learned was that God designed us to live in a community, to function as a body, not as just an individual. Dave totally helped me with something and it was no problem, I don't owe him anything, he doesn't expect anything from me, it's just how a community functions, I need help and someone can help me and i can help someone else, we all function as a group. And I can count on that, I can love that. God designed us to have something special that helps out someone else and that helps someone else and so on, we were designed to experience God together, all of us. And that is beautiful to me. On the way home my gps stopped working and God told me that he wanted to guide me and I was able to look around at the beautiful place i live in not a screen and you know what I drove straight home no problem, I am horrible at directions I mean that doesn't usually happen. And I got to feel so much joy and peace and happiness because when it all comes down to it there is something in control of this world and it is extremely good and based on love, unconditional. pure love. God doesn't want us to stress, freak out, be unhappy, God wants us to enjoy driving home at night and looking at the mountains, God wants us to smile, God wants us to have relationships that really mean something to us, God wants us to laugh and sing and love eachother because God wants us-and by us I mean, like, mankind- to experience him together. It's all about we and god, not me and god.
