How to Make New Friends

It’s the phrase that runs through my mind before I meet a new friend at Starbucks or before I meet with a new spiritual directee. I watch the mom with the perfect hair in the atrium fiddling with her phone, waiting for her children to come running down the hall and think, I know I would love you if I knew your story.

It took me years to not cave inward when looking into a stranger’s eyes, years bowing to intimidation.  I take off my mask, open my story and you open yours and I went from fear to gift…

Your story is dotted with glory like the swirls of constellations and as I listen, I become a star gazer.

Your story is full of the dust of heartbreak and hungers, of dreams living just under the surface, muffled and full of mystery.  Your story holds a map we all can recognize. We all are pocked with the pain of the cracked-open earth. Our roads cross with grief and canyons of unanswered questions.

Your story is like mine, full of broken pieces.

And yes, I know that I would love you if I knew your story.

Tomorrow I will share a long table with eight women, the beautiful broken, ready to go on a journey, THE Journey towards inner healing. A candle will be lit and the Word will begin to seep into the places left raw by those who tread rough on tender lives. I will hear the book bindings creak and chapters open and in awe, I will want to take off my shoes.

Pray with me for healing and for light spread into dark corners.

Pray for gentle wisdom and for Jesus’ resurrection power breaking open graves.

You? Perhaps you would like a spiritual director to be attentive to where He is at work, someone to listen…and to love your story.  If you are interested, contact me at mtrsummer(at)gmail.com.  We can try Skype or in person.