A Friend to Friend Note to You

First, I would like to apologize for the significant gap since my last real post. I attended a week long conference on spiritual direction with author Larry Crabb and then flew to California for my daughter's college graduation.

The conference was rich. There were just thirty-one students gathered with Larry Crabb, his wife Rachel, and two spiritual directors at beautiful Glen Eyrie near Colorado Springs.  Dr. Crabb did not distance himself from those of us attending the conference, though he certainly could have blown us away with his impressive credentials, intelligence, and his superior spiritual maturity. Instead, he approached us openly and humbly, a man sharing the things he has learned and where he is currently on his journey. It was a rare opportunity for me to sit in the presence of greatness, to listen, learn, be challenged, and soak in wisdom from my remarkable fellow attendees.

We spent the entire week having "conversations that matter" and being challenged with the ways we obscure the truth and put things that should come second in first place, (more on that in a later blog).  I have so much to chew on from what I learned. I was convicted and challenged.

I thought I would blog during the free time that week, but I found myself so deluged by thoughts, and weary from the intensity, that I simply could not do it.  

Now I find myself wishing that I could sink into a comfy chair across from you with my hands wrapped around a comforting cuppa something delicious, and have a conversation that matters with you. I would like to hear where you are in your journey, share where I am, and see if we can encourage each other to focus on what really matters in the midst of it all, loving God with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.

Is it possible to have a "conversation that matters" over a blog? Speaking too much and listening too little kills any good conversation, and that is the nature of this mostly one way form of communication, but I would like to try anyway. In the next days (weeks? months?) I would like to talk about where I am, what I am learning, and where I am stumbling and falling. Maybe there will be something in it that will resonate with you and encourage you on in your own journey.  I would love to have a two way conversation with you, so please comment back if you have thoughts to add, or would like to challenge me to see something that I seem to be blind to. Maybe together we can become "those who see".

Beth