Life is Complicated but Beautiful

At our Wednesday morning Free Store conversation Carlos joined us to continue our journey through the book of Romans.  Amazingly Carlos actually showed up early for which he was properly teased.  In almost two years this is probably the first time that he was there before the scheduled starting time.  Someone said, "It's a miracle" which made us laugh.  Carlos took the ribbing in good humor and it added to what was a festive mood for the conversation.

The conversation was loosely based on Romans 8:16-28.  Our new friend Anita started it off by saying, "There is none of us better than the other.  We all have a journey.  I'm still battling my tumor but I'm excited and have a sense of hope."  Carlos said, "We all have emotions.  The important thing is to keep them moving.  Pass it on."  At this someone said, "Life is better when it's like a river rather than a reservoir.  If stuff just flows in and never flows through it gets stagnant."

As the conversation continued Carlos said, "I didn't have a relationship with my father.  It was crushed early."  He went on to say that our relationships with our parents could effect the way we understand God as a father.  We might struggle with what it means to be a child of God and an heir of the kingdom.  He said, "Hope teaches us that we're goin through this life for a purpose."  Carlos then told us about something a friend had said recently that he kept thinking about, "Life is as close as you're gonna get to hell."  He thought that was very encouraging and especially when "going through hard times."  He went on to say that without hope, "Life is as close as you're gonna get to heaven" which somehow didn't seem quite as encouraging.

At this point Sheila said, "God is raising us, testing us."  We talked a bit about how testing is often painful because we don't see the point of the suffering that we are going through.  Our friend Brad said, "The glory can't be revealed if we don't suffer.  We have to learn to go against the grain of our desires and learn something about self-sacrifice."  At this Donald said, "Sometimes in my life I don't want to read the Bible.  My mom used to ask me to go to church and I didn't want to.  But God wants me to do it and I like to do what God wants."

As the conversation moved toward its conclusion another friend said, "I think that sometimes we have a false view of life.  We expect too much and think that if things don't go the way that we want when we want that there must be something wrong.  Maybe we feel like we have ruined things but that's not the case.  Life is complicated but beautiful."  At this Anita said, "That's therapeutic.  I have to remember that when my sister is cussin and giving me stress" which made us laugh.  She then said, "I'm a working construction project."  Carlos said, "Yes and it's amazing if you look at the difference between an eight year old and an adult how much growth takes place."  Anita said, "Since we are a work in progress maybe I should do today what I should have done yesterday.  Maybe I should start a new habit."