+we get one story, you and I

The book that sat in Matt Burchett's office when I was a Freshman at Belmont was the same one that inspired me as I left for college. Through Painted Desserts by Donald Miller. Donald Miller was up and coming back in '06. So was Rob Bell. And I remember feeling the weight of the words of both in ways I had not before.

I noticed that book up on my shelf in my own office yesterday. I pulled it down, and opened to a place where I had dog-eared six years ago. Words are so powerful for me that as I read line by line, I couldn't help but situate all the words, for the first time, in a new context, and it was hard to not feel the tears forming.

"And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving, and some coming home. Some summer and some winter. Some roses blooming out like children in play.

My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God.

We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God established the elements, the setting, the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?

Everybody has to leave. Everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons. Leave. Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed."

I got chill bumps reading this over again. The girl who read those words for the first time long ago would be proud of the girl who is reading them again now. After she left, and ventured out. And the quote is right. I have never been alone. I have no need to worry. And while everything is still back in Nashville, I have absolutely changed.