Coffee Date No. 12

 

If we were on a coffee date, I would invite you over to my new apartment. We love our new place, and being done with this move just feels so freeing. We haven't quite finished unpacking all of the boxes, but I cannot wait another minute to have people over. Naturally, I'd have my playlist from Lent on in the background, and I'd have some chocolate chip cookies to go with our Caribou (or whatever brand is currently sitting next to my coffee pot). There's really nothing I love more than having people in my home.

If we were on a coffee date, I would ask you about what you're learning lately. What is the Lord revealing to you in scripture or through the people in your circles? Recently he has been showing me areas where I have been holding back in community. We talked community in church yesterday morning, and Meredith said there were three tiers to being known: people knowing your name, people knowing your story, and people knowing your secrets. Brad added an innermost tier, which was people knowing our needs. It is a scary, humbling thing to think about someone peeling back our carefully constructed layers of protection to get to the heart of where we're really at, but it's like Hannah Brencher said: if you want to be found, you have to be honest about where you are. And I really want to be found. Meredith also pointed out that our union was the last thing Jesus prayed for before he went to the cross. And if unity was the last thing he prayed for, it should be the first thing we fight for (serious mic drop).

If we were on a coffee date, I'd timidly admit that I'm trying to unplug again. Why is this so hard? I want to stay informed now more than I ever have before, and I want my voice to be light -- but the honest truth is that I'm just so frustrated with the world and the church right now, and I'm struggling to see where Jesus is. I feel like my blood has been at a steady temperature of 211 degrees, and the next tweet or status I read is just going to send me over the edge, and when this happens, I know that the best thing I can do is to just shut it down.

If we were on a coffee date, I'd ask what books are currently making themselves at home on your nightstand. I have Nish Weiseth's Speak, Glennon Doyle Melton's Carry On Warrior (which admittedly, I've also been listening to on Audible, and ya'll, it is just so good), and Jennie Allen's Nothing to Prove. 

If we were on a coffee date, I'd tell you that I've TiVo'd all things Princess Diana. We have satellite television now, and along with new episodes of Chopped, I am obsessed with Di. I feel like she is just one of the most fascinating human beings of our time, and I so wish that she was still here.

If we were on a coffee date, I'd ask what you're working on right now that brings you to life. Because we need to do more of the things that make our lungs swell big with oxygen and gratitude and the scent of home. And I'd laugh when I told you to look around at my unfinished apartment. Making home is what has been keeping me settled lately. I put on an audiobook and do dishes by hand and try to figure out where to put this or that homeless knickknack (sometimes they wind up in the trash or the Goodwill bin). And I feel like I can breathe.

If we were on a coffee date, you'd be welcome to stay as long as you'd like. Because there's nothing that I don't want to hear about what has been going on in your life lately. The hard parts and the beautiful parts and everything in between.

What would you tell me if we were on a coffee date? Share all the things in the comments below OR by linking up with your own post!