"People Who Love Me." It's been more than 15 years since the day I wrote those words on the top of a journal page and started listing the handful of people whose names that I could add with full confidence. There weren't many of them that very first day, but that was because I had found myself in a place I had never been before, and, for the first time in my life, I needed to know who truly KNEW me...knew what I had done...and would still choose to love me. After years of trying so hard to please those that I cared about and making sure my choices wouldn't let anybody down, I had unknowingly come to believe that I was loved based solely on my performance. That worked until I could no longer "perform." Pain and heartbreak entered my life and left me feeling broken. And, as broken people often do, I made broken choices. Painful, life-changing choices that hurt those that I loved most in this world. It was those choices...
Every Tuesday, I have the privilege of volunteering at a homeless ministry at a local church, and, yesterday, I met a woman who had just been released from jail that very morning and needed help getting a replacement ID (that's what I help with each week). As I was filling out her forms, she noticed my Linked Horn (Noonday Collection) bracelet and commented on how much she liked it. I smiled, thanked her and kept working on the ID. I knew right away that I was supposed to give it to her, but I waited until a little while later while she was sitting at a table, eating, to do it. I briefly told her that I hoped that she would look at it and remember that God was always close and that she could talk to Him at anytime. She had NOTHING except the clothes on her back and did not know where she would sleep that night, so I knew my offer of a bracelet was pretty feeble, but I hugged her and she thanked me, nonetheless. Abou...