Being the mildly self-absorbed, wildly nostalgic person that I am, I tried to sit down and think about my year and which of its pieces were significant. I couldn't come up with enough highlights, which while it may sound sad, there are times for that. I had a lot of challenges in the year, but a lot of laughter and a lot of awesome moments, too.
On my drive home tonight, I remembered that this time of year holds two big anniversaries which are at their five-year-mark. Both have had a great effect on who I am now, and it's flooring me to think that it's been that long! This last weekend would've been the five year mark at my church, Mercy Vineyard, and today - give or take - would be the fifth year living on my own in Minneapolis. (Obviously minus some stints here or there, for YWAM and such.)
Seven different living situation; a mixture of roommates I'd just met, good friends, and best friends. Five years of getting to know my neighborhood, building memories, becoming fond of certain streets (see opening sentiment). The other day, as I drove down Central just past Broadway toward downtown, I had that realization that though I've moved so many times nothing since living on my own has quite felt like home, Northeast Minneapolis feels like home. Any one of the exits from 35W, and I begin to feel that coming home feeling. I remember as a kid, I knew the feeling of our exit ramp when we'd come home late, returning from a vacation. The feeling of something familiar, and comfortable; like stepping into an old, broken-in shoe.
Mercy is some metaphorical part of that shoe, - for a play on words, the sole? Really, my faith has grown so greatly there in a way I am so grateful for. It wouldn't have the richness it does from the things I've learned and discussed there. I wouldn't have really any of my circle of friends, let alone most of my best friends! Who knows if my faith would've sustained at all. I'm grateful that the Lord brought me to the exact place I've needed to be all these years, and for the experiences that have tagged along with that. The facets of a walk with Him that have caught light in my life seem to have exponentially multiplied, and while that can't all be attributed to one church, Mercy has certainly been the common denominator.
Interesting to me that the two have the same timeline; that just when I was going into the world in a new way, naively unaware of just how big of a deal it could have been, God tugged me easily into a community ready for me. The two really had to coincide. And when I think back on these last five years the good and the difficult, I can't help but call that more reflection of His goodness, in my life.
