time

i had quite a weekend, yesterday especially. it was one of those days that makes you feel the movement of life and the passage of time. i started the day with a chat to my sister (did you like that nice british phrasing?) who told me that someone dear that i haven't seen in a few years may be moving here, which got me all nostalgic. i had to get off the phone with her because i was meeting up with my friend, navani, who is visiting from tulancingo, mexico. i hadn't seen him in about two years, so it was awesome to hang out and catch up. he and his older brother are like my kid brothers...they even call me sis.

navani wanted to go to a spanish-language church service that is pastored by an old friend of mine named ben. it's the spanish-speaking community of my old church, city bible. i hadn't been by since they started spanish services, so this was a good excuse to get over there. it happened to be the day ben's baby was being dedicated, so his parents were visiting from nicaragua, and lots of people were there that i haven't seen in ages. it was cool to be surrounded by spanish again...though i've forgotten most of what i knew.

after spanish church navani and i grabbed a bite to eat and talked about life since we last hung out. he caught me up on some major things going on in his life. it was so awesome, but also very humbling to realize that as he talked about some of things he's facing he was worried that i would be upset by some of his less-than-ideal choices, and that he sincerely wanted my advice. it was awesome to be able to show grace when he was afraid of judgment, and the conversation that followed was such a cool opportunity to speak of what i've learned (through walking it out in my own life) of God's love, forgiveness and longing, and what it means to make choices in our lives that fuel our longing for God. At the end of the conversation he asked me to email a friend of his, a friend that is just discovering the relational side of God and His love, and share some of what we'd talked about over lunch. how amazing is that?

after lunch we went to music millennium and i finally got my hands on the interpol cd i was unsuccessful in ordering online. once i gave my friend a ride back to beaverton i popped in 'turn on the bright lights' and found myself reminded of the way things were two summers ago, when i used to listen to that cd all the time.. it doesn't seem like that long ago, but so much has changed in me and in my worldview that it seems like a whole other sheena. I truly thank God for that!

so that was my pretty-strange-awfully-weird-blast-from-the-past kind of day.