And this is how you know. . .

It has been the best of times, it has been the most uncomfortable of times, and it has been a growing time.

I was most amped this week when the church met. After several months of, how would you call it . . . "blah" we met together and really hashed out some hard things. One of the things that was, at first, a real downer for me was that how many to feed became such an issue that it was decided that each family would bring their own bag lunch to our gathering. And this is how I know that in spite of all the hard things that we have gone through and are working through that it all matters – when we came together with our individual bag lunches, it turned out that we all brought food for everyone else, and we ate from each others offering. It brought more encouragement to me than any words that could have been spoken.

We who are struggling to be outwardly focused already instinctively think of the others. And so we struggle with how to let go of ourselves and be outwardly focused, to love obnoxiously, and to be fed by each other and not ourselves. . .

That brings peace.