in which i share a cup of tea with sarah styles bessey

what is it that makes life worth living?

we sit on the couch in the young life lodge with cups of tea, and we laugh like people do, and we're blog friends, sarah and i, but now we're real friends, too. she's come to visit me here. at camp, where trent is head leader, and there is more, now. there is this. there is conversation, prayer, tears, and theology.

and my sons toddle in with sarah's oldest girl in her dress, and her boy with his cars and her youngest whose eyes are the sea. we're family in this lodge with its glass windows, and we're all leaning on each other, in this glass house beneath a wide sky in this big world.

and this is what makes it all worth living. this leaning. and she tells me this when i ask her if it's okay to not know where i stand with the church, and denominations, and she says, "God has you where you need to be. life is long. you are safe in him. so just sit, and have grace with yourself. lean into the moment, and let yourself be."

life is eternal is relationships.

we sit here surrounded by children and husbands and the air is thick with prophecy and love. our tea cups are full, and we reach for banana bread and someone says grace and it is everywhere.

grace.

because we all make life worth it.

with all of our angst and our problems and our differing opinions.

and i bet if we sat down on a couch with each other and shared a cup of tea, we'd soon be laughing.

and this says something, doesn't it?