To Know...and Be Known

I had the chance to do some extraordinary things today.

The first event on my very busy weekend schedule was a meeting about the Global Leadership Summit, where I have the privilege of serving on a team that makes many people welcome in our building as they learn via live satellite feed from some AMAZING leaders.  I have listened and learned and had my life changed for the past 4 years now by this annual event, and knowing that I get to serve on this team is a delight, because I know firsthand the difference it will make in the lives of those who attend it!

At this first team meeting with some amazing ladies who are also serving at the summit, our leader ended our time together in prayer - not an uncommon thing to happen at a church meeting.  She asked us point blank questions about what was going on in our lives and spirits - also not unusual, given this particular leader's style and belief in the power of prayer.  What was incredible is that we opened up to each other in a really surprising way. We shared great joy, deep pain, confident hope, and abject fear with each other and then took a long time to intimately pray for and with each other.

If you've never done that, I strongly recommend it.  To be prayed over in that way moved me.  To pray over a sister in that way humbled me.  I needed that connection so much and hadn't expected to have that need met so wonderfully this morning.  Where I had planned on attending a meeting, God planned a little revival in my life.

When I left that meeting, with my emotional tank already feeling pretty full,  I moved on to today's next big event - a very long awaited meeting with some former colleagues of mine.  For several years, we were a teaching team together.  I'm not sure you could find four people who are more different from each other in temperament, but what we share in common far outweighs that.  We can teach...all of us...and although we do it differently, we also do it really, really well.  We were a dynamic, high-performing team and it is a huge joy for me to know that we made changes in this world because we changed the lives of kiddos and their families.  We did some of our best work together and I have looked forward to sharing this lunch with them for a long time now.

It didn't disappoint!  The meal was wonderful, and the company was even better!  Being together with my friends made the years melt away and I could remember being a fairly young, idealistic teacher on a faculty with these people.  They really have no idea, I think, that some things I still do in the classroom I do because of their influence.  Admittedly, I know next to nothing about how other careers work, having spent the past 27 years as a teacher, but I really hope that at least some jobs have the same spirit of collegiality that educators share.  We are far more than co-workers.  We are truly friends.

As we were sitting at the table catching up with each other and waiting for the whole group to arrive, for the second time today, a friend asked me point blank questions about what was going on in my life.  And for the second time, I answered honestly and opened up to someone who was genuinely interested in the answers.  More connection.

On the drive home from an uplifting happy time together it hit me. Both of these interactions today revealed something to me about  myself that I'm finally able to put words to.

There is very little that I want more in life than to know and be known.  

I live a transparent life most times, as this blog can attest, in an effort to be seen and known by people.  It means so much to me when someone says by their actions,

"Hey...I see you...I hear you...I know you." 

Because what that really screams to me is,

"I accept you...I care for you...I love you."  

I pay attention and try to be positive and encouraging to people for much the same reason...I want them to know that they are seen and loved.  I want to remind them that they matter and that my world is a better place because they are in it.

I'm going to keep praying about this and digging into it now that I finally have some words for it.  I suspect that I'm not really alone in this desire to know and be known.  In fact, I'd be willing to bet that many people in this world probably want the same thing to some extent.  We were made for connection and it is an unnatural state for us to be without it.

Sometimes moving forward is about who you bring with you.  I have some of the best companions I could ever ask for along for my ride!

Moving Forward...again...finally

Angie
:-)