Now that I’m home I have been able to digest things I wrote while I was at the conference and here’s some of what came to me:
This blank page cries out to witness to the fact that it is here waiting for the words to be etched upon it.
Words that bring hope, love, freedom, charity, community, joy, healing, consolation, encouragement, commiseration, appreciation.
Words that banish shame, pain, wounding, bleeding, breaking, pride, arrogance. Words that express facts over the emotions of the moment.
Words that say balance, seek first the Kingdom, and write to your reader.
Words that remind us to be generous, to walk with that sister out in the dry and lonely places, and to lift another up in prayer.
These words were also spoken without a sound- the look exchanged when a word made the connection, a hug, a squeeze of a shoulder, a casual arm around the waist, a fleeting smile, the deep down belly laughs waiting for the next pic to snap, the tears flowing.
And then, the words in metered rhyme across the page spoken out bravely and the stories told. The true expression of community’s meaning in the midst of the living, breathing community- we are here for you, we want you to give out your words, we want to hear them and breathe them in as you breathe them out, and breathe them out again when we go back home. You have touched us in our inmost parts with the words The Word has given you to speak over us.
We left with clarity, joy, fulfillment, purpose, vision, new friends in real life, and so much more that He has graciously given from His Hand- and knowing we are better for it.
I realize this is fragmented, but those days were fragmented- I took the bits that were offered and they were indeed as nourishing as those cupcakes and cookies were- sweet to the taste!
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103