Conversations

This past weekend I got to speak with a really great friend of mine, Henry Graf. What I love about speaking with Henry is that we have tried to create a conversation style presentation when we are on stage. From almost the beginning of our friendship, Henry and I have had great conversations. We talk about family, life, struggles, but mainly, what God is teaching us in life. It's amazing because I didn't really talk this way with many friends, but I did with Henry. Henry and I don't see each other very often, but when we do, we get deep real quick. We have humor enough to share, and we do, but what I appreciate about our conversations is how real they are.

My friend Lindsey picked me and Lulu up from the airport on Sunday after the event. We were sharing about our weekends and all that was going on in our lives. At one point, my friend was sharing about how she wasn't honoring God with how she lived this past week. I was taken aback by her statement. Had I even thought about that at all? Was the way I was choosing to live my life honoring God this past week or weekend? Without even knowing it, she spoke truth into my life and challenged me to dig deeper.

Throughout my life I have noticed how much conversations have enriched, encouraged, challenged, and spoken wisdom into my life. Conversations hold the power to uplift or tear you down. To leave you feeling encouraged, or empty. Conversations I have valued the most are those that always point me back to the Lord unintentionally. Its just talking with friends about life. What is difficult, challenging, etc, and there my friend will sit and speak love and encouragement to me. They speak Jesus into my life.

I found myself very blessed lately to have many of these conversations. I have noticed that I have some incredible people I have in my life; friends that are seeking God daily. So many that speak encouragement and truth into our conversations. It has also taught me to listen and learn from our times together.

I have also noticed how many people are really terrible at conversation. Very often I find myself being the only one asking questions about the other person. (in which case its more like an interview) What’s going on in their life, how are things going, etc. What I have found is that there are quite a lot of people who don’t ask anything about me. They either don’t care or don’t know how to ask. And then if they do ask, the only questions are surface questions. I am saddened to think of how many people I know that are really terrible at conversations.

When people list all the ways that God speaks into your life; the Bible, prayer, church, etc., don’t ever belittle the community of God. The conversations that happen when we talk and listen to other believers. Many conversations in our days, weeks and months exist with no real depth, meaning, listening, or encouragement. But my prayer is that we can dig deeper with other believers, friends and family. We can talk about things that we never have before. Find truth and freedom in our faith and in our relationships. It is amazing how God teaches us through conversation.

It brings me back to speaking with Henry. Because of this reason we have chosen to have a conversation from stage and the last month has shown me how much people can relate to that. That they enjoy listening to a conversation that digs deeper, and prayerfully will make them want it for their lives.