Meaningful Conversations

"One conversation can change a life." - Meg Meyers, MAC '11

Sometimes moments strike you.  Sometimes it's like a slap in the face, and sometimes it's like realizing that you're awake after slowing coming out of a dream.  I find that I'm struck by the seemingly insignificant things that people say.  Like the quote above - just one small sentence, part of a lecture I heard today on Child Abuse & Neglect.  Hearing her say this made me re-realize that I want to have those conversations every day.  I want to be in the business of enacting change in the world - to walk with others in the restoration process.

This lecture also re-awoke in me my desire to work with children & families who are caught in the traps of abuse, neglect, and poverty.  Our speaker works for an organization very similar to the one I worked for during my last semester at William & Mary (Child Development Resources, aka CDR), and I could not help remembering how much I loved working there.  There is so much that the counseling & social work community can do to prevent "big issues" like child abuse/neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse, and juvenile crime, and yet we spend so much time trying to clean up the mess after it's already happened.  Restoration is not just an individual process, it's happening in families and communities and culture - and yet we shy away from working in these areas.

So if one conversation can change a life, how many lives do we affect every day?  What if the conversation you are in right now is the one that will change the life of whoever it is you are talking to?  Just something to think about.

Fasting & Feasting

It struck me the other day that Lent is fast approaching, and I haven't given any thought as to what I'm going to give up.  Funny how it sneaks up on you like that!  For those of you that have been following my rather random & rambling writings for awhile, you know that Lent is definitely not a tradition that I grew up with.  In fact, I've only been partaking in this time of fasting for the past two years.  Through these experiences, I've come to realize that I do not fast properly.  I use Lent as a means of testing my self-control and discipline, not as a way to learn to rely on God more.  I've also used it as a way to kick-start each failed attempt to eat healthier & get down to a weight I was happy with.  Seeing as I've lost 11 pounds since October (my first successful weight loss attempt - I'm thrilled!), this is no longer a motivation for me.

But the question remains, what am I going to do for Lent?  I think what I want to see happen is a true heart-change.  And in order to see that happen, I think I am inclined to not remove anything from my life.  Rather I am going to add something:  meditation.  There is an exercise that I found in a book I read last semester (Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson), that describes meditating on being known by God.  This is where I want to start - practicing being known by my Creator, and learning to know Him more.

What if we used Lent to focus not on depriving ourselves of yummy foods and enjoyable activities, but on feasting on the love of God and the Word He has given us?