Love Letter 25

I love you. I really do. There you sat in our living room last night, (a place you have sat on other nights I should add), while I bounced back in forth between wanting to jump up and down screaming with delight seeing what you’ve become, and wanting to hang on your every word. You know so much, but more than that, you’ve developed such wisdom – wisdom, not just experience in a particular, (and very useful for this day and age), field of work. The opportunity in your hands is really exciting. It is becoming clear that your unique manifestation of the creative life and power of God can launch true, and challenging  and transformative expressions of good news into a culture almost suffocating without purpose and meaning. Your expertise and your honesty just jumped out in full relief as you told me what you knew, (most people do that a little too well), and what you didn’t know, (most people don’t do that at all). I know it’s been painful to get to here. You’ve handled some very difficult and challenging people these last months, (and for many years and years before that) and you did it while keeping your eye on what is important – getting a product out to the general public that makes sense, that not only has the capacity to change lives but it turns out actually has changed lives – and you did it while old wounds reared their ugly head, (just as old wounds are want to do). But that ain’t the half of it. It is the way you love that makes my heart gush over with love for you. Your love for your beloved is a sight to behold. It is just plain gorgeous. If ever a woman needed the creative space to fly, it is your beloved and you, in the end so sure that she can do and can be who she is called to be, watch her dance and dance from close up or far away. None of this wimpy, “I love you because you fill my needs right now” stuff for you, no, it’s “I love you and so I’ll do anything I can, including nothing if that is what is called for, (though I’d imagine that’s the hardest), so that you can become the most glorious lover the world has ever known. That’s the quality of the love I’ve watched grow in you. I’ve had so little to do with the miracle that is you, and yet I find I’m bursting with pride, overcome by joy. I know that things do not always move from day to day in such glowing terms. I live in the stratosphere with my beloved too, so I know as Springsteen says, “Sometimes it’s really hard to hold your breath.” But what I see is what’s true when you are each sourced in the love of the One that draws all things together in perfect harmony. That’s what I see. I love you dear friend because you won’t let it go; like Jacob you won’t let life go until you’ve received its blessing and somehow you know that its deepest blessing comes from what you create, what you give. It’s a wonder to behold.

I love you,
Sam