unending love, amazing grace

This song has been in my head all day, since we sang it at church this morning.

The simple words:

unending love, amazing grace

Grace really is amazing. That the God of the Universe would pardon my sins through Jesus' death on the cross. Nothing short of amazing.

I love how a couple simple words really mean so much and resonate for hours, even days.

That's definitely been a theme on my journey, with the "it's not about you" phrase.

*I hope to lose myself for good. I hope to find it in the end. But not in me, in You.* - Switchfoot

Absolutely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hung a tapestry in my room yesterday, from Peru. It got me thinking tonight about how things come into our lives, and where they come from. Someone made that. Someone sold it. Someone bought it. Someone gave it to me. And now it's a part of my life. It's beautiful really, the tapestry that is woven in life. The way that things and people are a part of our tapestries.

It reminds me of a message from church about a year and a half ago. It was one that really stuck with me at the time and made me think of a good friend who I had lost touch with because of some nasty things she had said to me years before. We had a very large disagreement over life matters (okay, fess up Tamara).. to be honest, she was getting down on me for wanting to move in with my boyfriend at the time. I saw her as being very judgmental and self-righteous. She said a lot of very nasty things and it stung. I realize now that she was doing what she thought was right and how she wanted to be a good friend. Anyway, we stopped talking. I moved in with him, learned my lessons (wouldn't take it back, I learned some serious lessons that are priceless and I am the type of person who needs to learn things the hard way apparently).. But she and I were no longer friends. The message at church was about being "Woven Together". It's not just MY story and YOUR story, but OUR story. We are on this journey together. It struck me that day so much that I went and prayed with one of the pastors (I wrote a little about this experience in my very first post, about when I started letting my guard down and getting connected)... but we prayed for this broken friendship. This friend was a huge part of my coming to Christ. My journey to a relationship with God. God used her in my life in countless ways. It was time to forgive her and move on. I prayed about it and eventually sent her a message. I let her know that I had forgiven her, and myself, for the ways we had treated each other. I let her know that I was no longer holding on to the chains that had been dragging along for years. She sent me a message back saying that it was amazing I sent the message when I did, that she had been praying about me as well. She apologized. It was finished. Then a year later, she added me as a friend on FB and sent me a nice message about reconnecting. I haven't seen her yet because she lives 3 hours away, but we have talked about getting together the next time she's in town. The beautiful thing is she is feeling called to be a pastor, as am I. It is amazing the journeys that God has us on.

We're all connected. And it's a beautiful thing the way God weaves our journeys together.