Sunday, December 19

(Here's sharing, with permission, an actual letter written to an actual friend many years ago.  When I write letters, I put my heart into them.  Here's hoping you'll understand that.  Here's hoping this might be for you this winter.)

Dear friend,

Hey there.  I've missed you.  I hope your life is filled to the brim with good people and things that bring you joy.  Reasons that wake you up in the morning, that make you feel alive.  I know that has not always been the case.  Winter is the coldest season, and it feels like the longest.  The days get shorter and darker and it's much easier to lose your purpose and sense of direction.  To have light, to have enough to see by, to live by, to live in is not always the easiest thing.  Sometimes the easiest thing is to get tangled in negativity and pessimism.  The world says that the person that doesn't expect anything won't be disappointed.  To just take what you're given.  I used to believe that and it kept me from getting hurt.  But it also kept me from truly living.

Sometimes winter is a fight.  To expect good things.  To trust that God is in control, that we're safely in the palm of His hand.  To feel alive.  To remember our sense of purpose.

Don't let the cold steal your sense of wonder.  You are an incredible human being, and the world needs people who have come alive like you, who have a reason to believe.  Don't lose that.  Don't let anyone take it.  Don't listen when they tell you that you're wrong for having wild dreams.  Wild dreams and steadfast hope in our God are the only way to live.  If winter is a fight, I'm fighting right alongside you.  Until I get to see you again- love with reason, love without reason, and love with reason not to.

"And miles to go before I sleep"
-Elizabeth

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