Some friends could tell you the appreciation I have for running outdoors

I use to do it every second night at my peak

Somewhere in the middle of then and now I stopped.

Today my work friend was explaining to me the benefits of running outside instead of the treadmill I was on and he inspired me.

So I came home, put on some shorts and sneakers and went for a run!

I am so glad I did…wow like ummmm HELLO, tonight was gorgeous.

I don’t often (which means never) say that I feel blessed in moments, sure I have experienced it but I don’t vocalize it….but tonight I will…

I felt blessed while running through the streets of east Vancouver (also known as Hastings sunrise). The sun was setting in front of me quietly hiding itself behind the glowing mountains and bustling city, this was highlighted by a vast blue sky, a mild temperature and the song ‘Ache’ by James Carrington playing in my head.


I loved it, soaked it in, felt energized and peaceful because of it and don’t want to let so much time pass before I do it again.

Faces

I love faces

The design of them
The complexity of them
The beauty of them

I like to look at and watch peoples faces which I admit can be a bit creepy because most people think I am looking at them and I guess I am but then I am not, at least not in the way they probably imagine. I almost feel like I am looking at something deeper then the image my eyes are seeing.

Their wrinkles, scars, eyes and marks are telling me a story about a life that doesn’t require words but causes me to wait and wonder.

I love faces.

A couple years back I was reading a book called “Practicing the Presence of People” and the author talked about his love of malls because he could people watch and therefore fall in love with a creation that is the bearer of the image of God. That thought permeated within me because this is what I want to do, love people. Watching faces helps facilitate that for me because when I look at someone faces it makes me wonder about their story, about their life, about their struggle and wondering leads to life and life to grace and grace to love. To be honest judging people has become to easy for me which is counterintuitive to loving in the first place because “ when we judge people we have no time to love them” (Mother Theresa) and I want to love;

The scars
The wrinkles
The beauty
The story
And most importantly the person.

Hearing

Sometimes when I am in pain I lie on the floor
Sometimes when I am deep in thought I can’t speak
Sometimes I think wonderful things just to forget them moments later
Sometimes I take people for granted when all I really want to do is love them
Sometimes (all the time) people tell me things without realizing the impact it will have on my life.

Today I received a phone call from someone who has had a huge impact in my life, my mentor/friend Jodi, she phoned to explain that she had just finished talking to someone about me and about the passion I have. She explained how she was almost in tears because of the conversation she had with this lady on my behalf. She gave me this ladies number and explained that maybe I should call her.

Instead I laid on the floor in pain, went to the bank, thought wonderful thoughts, ate ice cream, thought about a conversation I had on Easter with someone, came back home with the unsettling feeling in my gut that I needed to phone this lady.
So I phoned her unsure of what I should say but I though that maybe if I started with the basics God could handle the rest…

“Hey there my name is Leaha, you talked to my friend Jodi today”….
“Hi there Leaha I was waiting for your call”

From there we told each other our testimonies, our hearts, our fears, our visions (more like her amazing vision and my faithless vision) and then she prayed for me and explained how blessed I had made her day.

I got off the phone with her feeling pretty amazing because she recognized something in me that I have been trying to hide and repress without much luck because even though I become quiet and without words when deep things are happening in my head God still knows what is happening, and even if I don’t want to recognize it verbally he uses other people to bring those thoughts to life with their words.

To give a little bit of context to all of this I should explain some things. I have always had the heart and desire to be with people, to love people, to encourage people and to make people smile. I had the desire when I was younger to be a “missionary” and I did it. But my thoughts began to change about how and why it should be done to start with.
I am not a big proponent of people going into a place, telling the people about how their lives are bad and how they need Jesus, then leaving the place and going home feeling all happy inside, somehow this never seemed like the Gospel to me and I feel like it has left many people groups a little confused, mainly my own. I have seen too much hurt and disappointment in my own people because of things that have happened to them at the hands of religious people( in the form of residental schools) who used Jesus as their own tool for assimilation into the mainstream culture ( , more accurately put I still see and hear about it every time it gets brought up that I attend a church and believe in God and every time I see another family stuck in hopelessness to the extreme that drugs/alcohol and suicide become their only future.

I dont want this be the history of my people, I dont want to be another statistic, I dont want others to be ignorant about why these things occur, I dont want to be dispassionate and I defintly dont want to sit around well fed, well dressed, well educated and filled with the spirit of a God who moves mountains and whispers in the ears of his people to do something....


14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds ? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2.

Phone Time

You ever meet someone that you knew in the depths of who you are that you were/are suppose to know them? That person that makes you feels warm and alive and thankful because you get to be around them. Well I have someone in my life that I feel so grateful to know and knowing them is only possible because we both listened to something that told us to take a step and obey the voice of god in our lives.

This isn’t a romantic boy/girl relationship that I am talking about, but a deep rooted friendship with someone I have known for about four years. My friend Kat has been in my head for a while, my thoughts have been that I should just call her and make a date to hang out but often I just tell myself that I will do it later and then I forget, get distracted, get busy and the moment passes. Today I decided that I would not let the moment pass and called my friend. I phoned and we talked, we didn’t have any amazing heart wrenching conversation, nothing significant went down… but we talked.

Talking to Kat reminded me how grateful I am to know her, truthfully speaking she is one of my favorite people and I wish I could introduce her to everyone I know. She is one of those people that inspire me to press on, to stand for what I believe, to love, to give and to live unselfishly, and she does this by the way she lives her life. I think the difference between her and other people that I know is that I respect her and somehow that changes everything.

Being her friend makes me want to be a better friend, if I could only be a glimpse of light to the people around me like the light she is to me my heart would be satisfied.

Having great friend’s displays to me the impact that we can have with the people in our lives…we have the opportunity to be a positive and loving presence in peoples lives and this excites and freaks me out because there are so many hurting and fragile, so many who feel abandoned and depressed and it is so easy to judge instead of love and unfortunately I feel that I don’t love with the capacity that I have been given and I don’t want to be like that…. I want to be generous with my love, with my time…. with my life because when I really think about it my life was redeemed, I was bought with a heavy price and I do not want to take that for granted.

This is why I am glad I talked to my Kat.

Tonight

Equation for a good night

Rain
Comfy Clothing
Glass of Wine
and a Good Book !