Friendships are a challenge for me. People are often surprised by that, if they don't know me well, since I come across as an extroverted, people-person. Truth be told, I'm an introvert that struggles to develop long-term friendships with people - functioning under the premise that I bug people by calling and intruding in their lives; so I wait until friends call me. It's a weird foundation to function from, I know. There's several reasons from it from childhood and part of it is I just need to retrain myself.
In light of that though, this weekend was ironically incredible as I got to connect with lots of friends.
Friday, the 4th of July
Friday afternoon I ran into Steven Sbanotto on a walk where he invited me over to an open-party at his parent's house, about 1/2 a mile from the airport, for dinner and fireworks. While I was there, I had an incredible chance to catch up with Melissa, Karey (sp?), Joy & Mark Stoner, Steven, David Burney...meet a gal named Holly and her brother David (who I got to spend a good bit of time talking to)...and then connect with Andrew Bolger at the end of the night, which was an AWESOME surprise. So good to see him - I have so much respect for him and it's great whenever we get to catch up. Talk about a man with a lot of wisdom and a solid character.
Saturday
I got to kick the day off with breakfast at Kathy's Corner with Andrew Bolger and Mr. Whitmore, which was a great time. Then Andrew and I hung out for another couple of hours, sitting, talking, and drinking chai. What a terrific time! Then Saturday night, Cody and Kara Beckman (who have been incredible to me this year, inviting me to join them for Razorback baseball games, graduation parties, etc.) and Kara's sister Maranda, invited me to joing them for a Professional Bull Riding (PBR) competition at the Rodeo of the Ozarks - what a cultural experience. Holy Cow! :-) On top of that, we had some awesome homemade pizza and watched "The Office". :-) Cody, Kara, and Maranda have been an incredible blessing this year. I hope we all get to connect again in the future.
Sunday
Then today, I went to church where it was great to see people who have been such a blessing in my life. The church just found out this last week that I'm headed to N. Ireland, so some really encouraging conversations about that (I found out that Seth Wrigth and his wife will be living in Belfast this next year - woohoo!). After church, the Jackson's invited me to their house for lunch. What an awesome family! It's been really good to get to know Dwight, a man I respect a whole lot. Travis Chaney and Ben Bergstrom were also there - which was a lot of fun. They're great story tellers and great at bringing humor to conversations. This afternoon/evening I then spent with Josh & Chelsea Deal out at New Life Ranch for 5 hours. We gathered black berries, went fishing (I caught a large mouth bass which was cool), and had an incredible spaghetti dinner. Josh and Chelsea have been so good to me. I'm really excited their moving to Little Rock - since it means that they'll be near my parents for the next two years, thus more likely that I'll get to see them and stay in touch.
Beyond...
Really, the blessings of my life have gone way beyond these examples. I got to talk to Dusty Johnston on the phone Thursday. He's a longtime friend who's wedding I have the joy of being in this next weekend - I can't wait for him and Anna. I got to talk with James Barnes, a best friend from college, on the phone a couple of times. Jason Hough came by tonight and I got to talk with him - he's such a huge encouragement in my life. I got to talk to a college friend, Lisa Repair, and hopefully will get to see her driving through Jackson, MS here in a couple of weeks. I got to connect with James Kuykendall and John Aoun on facebook this week (among a bunch of others).
Honestly, it's been an incredible week and I am so, so blessed by all the wonderful people the Lord has brought into my life. Mary Armstrong this morning was such an encouragement at church, letting me know she'd been praying for me and would continue to.
What would it look like if God had created a world that didn't function on relationships? What if God created a world where everyone functioned within relationships like I do? How different the world would be. How dreary it would be. This young boy who still struggles to build into relationships and develop them, is humbled by the ironic blessing of having wonderful people in his life. While my response likely should be something more, for what I have, I am thankful for it in way that I can't express...it strikes me to the core and humbles me like few things do.
2 comments:
Daniel, from one mk to another, I can totally relate with you regarding the introvert vs extrovert challenge especially after leaving college. Along with that I'm learning as time goes by that the word "long-term" is a relative term (ingrained differently in each person) which doesn't help ones interpretation of a friendship... Hope that makes sense :)
Hey bro, thanks for commenting; I'm glad I ran across your site. Did Cody pass it on? I miss that kid, and I miss you too. You are on my shortlist of JBU people I'd like to keep in contact with. Let me know the next time you're around my area. The wife and I (and the baby) will be down in AR for homecoming, so hopefully we'll see you then at least. Have a good one, bro. (You should start a tumblr!)
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