So I have been doing a whole lot of thinking lately. I calculated it out, and I really think I met close to 600 new people while I was raising support. And then I got “released to assignment” and came out here to Estes Park, Colorado, to be on staff with our GCM Leadership Training program, and I've met at least 100 more. I really do love meeting new people, mostly just because I love people. I love seeing the different and unique personalities that God has created, and I like to learn what makes others think and act the way that they do.
One thing that’s really crazy to me, though, is that I seriously used to have Social Anxiety Disorder. It’s interesting because I will always say that, and tell everyone I know, yet most of the time it seems like a far off, distant reality. I mean, I know I had it, but I feel so removed from all the pain associated with it, and God has healed me so much that as I tell others about what it was like, it almost seems as if I’m describing a person that doesn’t exist, or I’m telling a story about someone I used to know. It’s hard to believe that was actually ME!!! I mean, I was so scared to talk to new people (and even most of my old friends and family) and now it’s my full-time job to love people and help build genuine community. I seriously think that is so crazy, and such a testimony of God’s power and his goodness! He makes all things new, and we really are “new creations in Christ” when we accept him into our lives.
I also feel really honored because so many of my friends have invited me to be bridesmaids in their weddings recently. I love to take pictures and turn them into scrapbooks, and I remember making one about 5 years ago and crying because I thought, “
This will be the last scrapbook I ever make because I’m never going to have friends again.” And I really really believed that! I thought that disorder was incurable and that I was doomed to be alone for the rest of my life! But praise God that he delivered me! And now I not only have a lot of good friends, I have such close, intimate, and real friendships that they actually want me to be a part of their weddings. I’m really just in awe of Jesus and his goodness to us!!
"Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things" Psalm 107:8.
