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Let's toast

When I think about how I made it through my years in Michigan, I know I couldn't have done it without community (side note: after shamelessly promoting our lifegroup video last year, I canNOT say the word community without singing it to the melody lol).

A lot of changes came about when I started college--not only the idea of starting a new life in an unknown city, but my biological family had also transitioned to life in Korea, and I went through an extreme identity crisis as I was confronted with the gospel while living a duplicitous life. But through all the new things I was experiencing, there was always a sister or brother in my spiritual family who was encouraging me to keep trusting in our Lord JC. Without my peers, accountability partners, mentors, and spiritual role models, I am nearly confident that I would have fell away from the faith (especially in light of all the junk I had hidden away behind-the-scenes).


My mom is in-town this week and today I had the chance to invite some friends over for a home-cooked meal. To be honest I was a little nervous about how the dinner would go, especially considering some of the new and younger faces that would be joining (this has become a tradition of sorts in the past few years when my mom visited)--the group was a hodgepodge of influential people in my life, from past/current roommates to old lifegroup leaders to younger sisters I began investing in. Despite my worries, my friends did a GREAT job incorporating my middle-aged mom with broken English into the conversation, and she had a GREAT time.

My mom is still trying to convince me to move back home, but she mentioned last time how she felt so much more at peace about my life on the other side of the world once she got to know the people I was surrounding myself with here. She may not know now exactly what it is that "make us all similar" (Jesus), but she definitely recognizes something is different.


So to the brothers and sisters nearest to me (some unpictured due to prior engagements), here's what I contemplated toasting to at tonight's dinner but chickened out about (heh):
Thanks for being a part of my spiritual family and loving me just the way I am (as unconditional as a biological family's love can be). You've shown me so much patience, given me undeserved trust, and redefined the value of friendships in my life. I don't know what good you see in me, so it must be Jesus :P. Here's to another year of loving and serving our great God! xoxo, ny

Comments

eyu said…
You should have raised your hand and moved to the front of the room to give the toast :P
April 15, 2011 at 9:39 AM
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