When I was a kid, to get our blended family to get along, my mom told me and my siblings over and over, “The relationship is in the heart.” It was burned into our brains like branded cattle and it has taken on a whole new meaning being away from home my first Christmas.
Back home, I have friends that stick around closer than skin. I’ve known them for years, they come over for holidays and spent my whole birthday trying to beat each other at Tiffany Trivia. No joke, my friends and family actually duked it out to see who knew me the best, and the winning team won on creativity. At home I am known and there has always been a place for me even when I don’t feel like that’s the truth. At home, I text old friends I adopted as family years ago and say, “Merry Christmas, Sissy,” or, “Brother.” But this time, I’m on the other side of the world with people who before the Lord called us were strangers.
On the Race, I’ve had to learn to rely on the words I grew up learning and think to myself, “Do I really believe this to be one of my core values?” “Is this something that’s still true for me?” And let me tell you, when you give people the opportunity to know you and see you in your mess, you’ll spend Christmas opening gifts you love with people you love and giving gifts to people you love and to the man down the street who makes your dinner every night all the way on the other side of the world.
I think the world needs that. People who will show up in all that they are willing and open to let love flow through them, not just out of them. You have to receive love to give it well, and I thank Jesus everyday that he loves me well enough for me to live openhearted.
From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!
P.S. I’m still not fully funded! If you’d be willing to make a donation, just click the link above! I’m so grateful to be on this journey because of you.
