Conversations With Friends

Today has been a lovely, crazy day. It started with breakfast with friends and ended with coffee and friends. In between, a picnic in the park and some life changing conversations.

I've been feeling really convicted about forgiving others. On the whole, I'm not a bitter person. I don't hold grudges (at least not for long) and I'm not vindictive (at least not in an outward way). I was talking with my breakfast friends about how it's so much easier to forgive than it is to forget. And I do believe forgetting is a part of forgiving. Forgive? Sure. Forget? Um, no, not really. To live like it never happened, living in a fully restored relationship...I can't even imagine what the Christian life would look like if we forgave and lived in completely restored relationships. Well, actually, I do know what it would look like. It would look like Christ. I want that. I want to restore my relationships totally and completely. I have some work to do though. Really hard work. And that takes a lot of effort and a lot of being intentional. Barf.

I ended the day discussing theology with my coffee shop friends. I've been reminded how important it is to know what you know and why you know it. To search it out, hash it out, work it out, live it out. I'm not a huge fan of discussing theology. I think it's easy to waste a lot of time talking about peripheral things. I mean, it mostly boils down to, Love God, Love people. But, I think discussions like today can be really stretching. And fun. I really enjoy hearing other perspectives and opinions, even if I totally disagree with them. Provers 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Today was full of that sharpening or at least the beginning of it. I like it. 

I have some thinking to do. And a lot of reading. And probably some more discussing. And then some action to take.