We give to each other as we give to everyone

In thinking and writing about the lives of my friends I can’t help but also think about my own – what would my family and friends remember about me? Would they see my life as I have seen it? Would they see someone who preferred time alone, to be withdrawn, to seek quiet? Would they remember someone who wasn’t very social, yet when he did talk would prefer to speak about science, economic, and spiritual interests and less about the families of others? Would they know that my thoughts preferred to be elsewhere?

People are intuitive; they know. They know I like to move within the deeper things of science and spirit. And in You I have both, but in ways unexpected. There is the thinking that creates, the science of endless and impossible possibilities, a walk with God.

I think sometimes I miss the social interaction of having a large number of friends and events but always seem to gravitate to the place of inside, the place of quiet, the place with You. I assume everyone else sees this too, but I would not have it any other way.

To have a great many friends or to have a very few close ones is only a preference of the heart created, for the heart to be full, for the heart to be loved and held in esteem by another. My heart for you is that you would always be My friend, would want to be with Me, that we could always explore together what life can be for both of us. It is never a journey for one but always two. It is the melding of two hearts that the one might be greater than the sum of the two.

We give to each other as we give to everyone — all that we are, whether or not they receive. It is the giving that matters most. How that is best to happen is the journey we take with each other. Will they see you in Me, and I in you? Will they be drawn to us as having something that brings a fuller heart, a grander life within, greater experiences without? It is our desire. And so day by day we watch, and listen, and give what can be taken in the hope that the promise of life might be fulfilled in all we meet.

That is a life fulfilled: that Goodness is always expressed under any circumstance — that a legacy of encouragement in difficulty, joy in accomplishment, and a life of peace through sacrifice would be what is remembered.

∞

On the friendship that was searching for you before you started searching for it. 🧵

The deepest ache isn't loneliness. It is the suspicion that no one actually wants you.

Needs you, maybe.

Benefits from you, perhaps.

But wants you — chooses you — simply because of who you are?

Most of us have spent our whole lives wondering if that Someone exists. ∞

The heart was built for one thing:

To be fully known and held in esteem by another.

Not tolerated.

Not managed.

Esteemed.

There is One who has seen the whole of you —

and has never once looked away. ∞

He doesn't want a servant.

He wants a companion.

Someone to explore with.

To walk alongside.

My heart for you — these are not the words of a sovereign demanding.

They are the words of a Friend reaching.

The difference matters more than most of us were ever taught. ∞

It was never meant to be a journey for one.

Always two.

Not you carrying your life toward Him.

Not Him carrying it without you.

Two — moving together into what life can become for both.

That for both is the part religion so often leaves out. ∞

He gives all that He is —

whether or not we receive it.

That's the nature that undoes you when you finally see it clearly.

Love that isn't contingent on reception. Grace that doesn't wait for readiness. He gives. Daily.

Whether we open the door or not. ∞

When two hearts are fully given to each other —

the result isn't addition.

It's something neither could have been alone.

He brought everything He is.

He has always been waiting to see what we'd bring.

The sum was always meant to exceed the parts. ∞

Will they see Me in you?

This is the question underneath every other question.

Not: did you succeed? Did you build? Did you lead well? Will the people who watched your life see something they couldn't fully explain — something that made them lean in and wonder? ∞

Day by day He watches.

And listens.

He gives what can be taken in — no more, no less.

He is not withholding.

Because love is always patient with the pace of a heart.

He has never once grown tired of waiting for yours. ∞

A life fulfilled isn't the one that accomplished the most.

It's the one where goodness kept finding its way out —

under any circumstance.

Encouragement in difficulty.

Joy in accomplishment.

Peace through sacrifice.

Not as performance.

As overflow. ∞

That's the legacy.

Not what the world watched you build —

but that when people were near you,

they somehow felt nearer to Him.

They couldn't explain it.

They just knew something was different here.

That this something was more. ∞