I've been meaning to write this blog since Sunday, so hopefully I'll remember most of what I wanted to write down. This last weekend, I was reminded of just how blessed I am to have good friends here in Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida. I spent a lot of time, particularly on Sunday, hanging out with people from my church plant. First was church in the morning, then I had house church at 5, then after that some of us guys met up to go shrimping. Honestly, I'd never been shrimping before, but can say I had a really good time at it, mainly because of the company I surrounded myself with. 2 of the guys had their 2 boys a piece with them and the other guy has a son on the way in about 6 weeks. We had a blast, there were 2 eight year-olds, 1 six year-old, and 1 five year-old. They had a big time trying to find the shrimp and scoop them into our nets that the other guys brought. Fishing has never been a forte of mine, and perhaps that bad luck carried over to shrimping because we didn't catch any shrimp that were really big enough to keep. We did, however, catch some blue crabs that my friend is going to cook sometime for his family.
My immediate family consists of my parents, who live in the middle of Illinois, and my brother Nathan, who currently lives, works, and goes to school in Germany. His first year of grad school at UPenn cost something around $50,000 after scholarships. So he learned German and goes there now for about $1,300. Anyways, I obviously don't get to see a lot of them since we're kind of spread out all over the place, though I do make an effort to go home to Illinois about twice a year. Since I don't see my immediate family a lot, I need people down here to fill in those gaps. So I have certain people down here who I consider to be my family. Most of them are from church, but not all. God has blessed me tremendously through these friendships, and I truly couldn't ask for anything more.
Maybe family isn't so much about blood relatives as it is about who you allow close enough to you to hurt you if they chose to. Deep relationships require vulnerability, which for some reason I have no problem with in regards to friendships but am terrified about when it comes to dating relationships. On my round the world trip, I remember being surrounded by people at times but feeling all alone. Family are those people who you share some history with, the ones close enough to truly get on your nerves but at the same time are the ones who you would choose over anyone else to have near you given the chance.
On my round the world trip I learned a lot about the world and about my own likes and dislikes, and now I can say that I learned to be grateful for the people in my life who I love and am close to. They're what makes life worth living. And don't misunderstand me when I say close to. I don't necessarily mean physical proximity so much as those who have a shared connection with you that make you feel at home whether you're in the same room or on the phone with them. Lately, I have reveled in the fact that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be for now. I'm in the midst of friends on a weekly basis and for that I am incredibly grateful.
May you be surrounded by your family, whether through blood or close contact. And may you learn to deal with all the quarks that we all bring to the table.
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