Laughter

If I had to use one word to describe this past weekend, "laughter" would be it. There was so much laughter! We laughed in response to the funny, fanciful (and sometimes completely illogical) logic of a six year old and the fun of trying to keep three balloons in the air all at once for as long as possible. We laughed at cute little scenes from "101 Dalmations" and the antics of some of the toddlers present during our community group gathering. We laughed with friends and family. We laughed with each other...maybe sometimes at each other, but in a good way, hehe.

It just seems like it has been awhile since we have had that kind of weekend. It helped that I slept well Friday and Saturday nights. Ultimately I believe the Lord knew that we just needed a break from certain drama that seems to be waiting to darken our doorstep quite regularly these days. It is not gone - far from it. The burden of it just felt lighter to me, virtually non-existent in some ways.

I know the Lord is working on me continuously, but since starting Redemption Groups at church there has been a substantial amount of "pruning" going on. A noticeable amount. The process is not easy - in fact, it is quite heavy and dark. That is just the way it is when confronting suffering and sin in your life, especially when it is suffering and sin that you have managed to bury deep within for a long time. Usually in those cases it is buried without true reflection, so when bringing it back up you are faced with dealing with it as if it just happened. This kind of reminds me of a quote from Shakespeare's drama Coriolanus - "I have some wounds upon me, and they smart to hear themselves remember'd."

All that to say, with everything that is going on I never expected to have time where I felt so light and carefree as I did this weekend. It was a breath of fresh air.