Over

This past week, I had the opportunity to have conversations with women that reminded me of something important that I too often forget: everyone has a story. 

And while their stories might not align pretty within the lines drawn out to the box we often force them to fit into, it doesn't lessen the value of them. Over spotty cell phone reception in crazy traffic, over a warm bagel, over the noise of a crowd in a shop and over the awkward silence of someone's living room did I have these conversations this past week. And even though I am a naturally rushed person at certain moments, these pockets of time to exchange words and tap deeper into listening revealed to me, reminded me, and challenged me to remember that people have hurts, people have challenges, people want to be heard.

And though I am still trying to understand it all in my own self and don't always believe it, I am reminded that as a person who says they love Jesus, I am called to share His love wherever and whenever I can. Even if I'm just as broken, just as challenged, and even if my attempts are imperfect and clumsy and I don't always get it right, I am still called for something bigger, still fully accepted as God's beloved. No matter how clumsy or imperfect the attempts, I hope to share that even when my rough my days are or how "over" everything and everyone I sometimes feel, God always seems to restore hope and remind me that He is not "over" me.