Finding Momentum

I was sit­ting under the alcove of the Bear Mar­ket today try­ing to do some devos and not get rained on (you know those gusts that bring side­ways rain…). Ten min­utes in I found myself half-daydreaming-half-people-watching: peo­ple with umbrel­las out, col­lars tucked in, jack­ets pulled in tight.

“See how much I love them.”

The thought flashed across my mind again. And they kept pass­ing, hands hold­ing the breath close to their faces, side­step­ping pud­dles, talk­ing on cell phones, track­ing pud­dles into store­fronts. The ones dressed in san­dals, shorts and only a sweat­shirt looked the most miserable.

“See how Beau­ti­ful they are?”

To be hon­est, God, I don’t. I just see stu­dents. Peo­ple. Friends, ene­mies. Stereo­types. Categories.

“I cre­ated them. I love them.”

Help me see.

I saw it in: A smile. A cup of roasted cof­fee. A cou­ple hold­ing hands. Rain. Fresh air. Laugh­ter between friends. Life.

“I gave those to them. That’s how much I love them.”

Pas­tor Den­nis once told us, “I love rain because it’s a reminder of God’s grace falling on the saved and the unsaved.”

I walked extra slow today to class (yeah, I’ve also got a bum ankle, but that’s beside the point), tak­ing it all in.

“They’re all worth it. They’re worth my Son.”

Yeah, yeah, we are.

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Hey hey hey, I need to thank some folks:

Mike Lee, who basi­cally went outta his way to check out a book from the UCLA library, take pho­tos of them and send them to me because I was stress­ing about not being to find it at the UCB library for this crazy­gonuts his­tory paper I have.

Folks who ask “How are you doing” and lis­ten and pray for me. IV com­mu­nity, room­mate Mike, Jeremy Lee and (hope­fully in the future), Mosaic.

Matt Kwok who I hope doesn’t read this. But I really appre­ci­ate get­ting to know him this year (I look up to this guy).