I love this time of year because I'm a huge fan of the cheesy holiday movies on the Hallmark channel. I could watch "a twist on Dickens' Christmas Carol" a thousand different ways. I cry and cry and cry. But that's not why I'm here...
Last weekend was our women's retreat, and it was great! The theme was "Chaos" or really, Jesus' peace in the midst of chaos. What a perfect theme going into the holiday season!
There were some great testimonies. Personal histories always surprise me. It's like somehow I don't consider people having much of an existence prior to my meeting them. (Look how arrogant that is all written down like that!) But I honestly don't typically give people much credit for where they've been - I judge on the teeny tiny slices of life I happen to see in passing. I've rarely taken the time to get to know people enough to hear their stories - I'm so caught up in my own! But when I do - when I happen to be at the right place at the right time - and am privileged to hear a small part of a person's real story - it's so humbling!
I think quite highly of myself (in case you hadn't noticed). So it's such a shock to find out other people are interesting, too! And complicated! And amazing! So the humbling part is to find out that other people are MORE interesting and complicated and amazing than me. And I am so grateful for my own story - simple, safe, and relatively uneventful as it is. God has been so good.
I've heard it said that if we all could throw our problems in a pile and pick up someone else's, we would all take our own problems back. I think that's true. When I see what other people have gone through or are going through, I gladly embrace my own little plights and trials.
So as Thanksgiving races closer, I am hoping I can follow through on a few "Retreat Resolutions" (I got that phrase from one of the testimonies):
1 - Don't create my own chaos
2 - Cut people some slack - I have no idea where they've been and what they're going through
3 - Maybe take the time to find out where they've been and what they're going through (that one's hard, so it's a "maybe")
4 - Remember I hold the secret to peace - but it shouldn't be a secret, it's Jesus!
The End
