"Tonight was dope."

Tomorrow is Alli Sam's birthday. When we met up for mini-campaigners tonight it seemed only fitting that we would celebrate with funfetti cupcakes. I've been friends with this girl for nearly five years now and I'm so thankful for her. I'm so excited for the ways that she's growing right now, how excited she is about Wyld Life and this joy I've seen in her since Castaway. 

I made a spontaneous trip to the bookstore this weekend and one of the new books in my stack is For the Love by Jen Hatmaker. She's a Hope Spoken speaker, a TX conference I went to with Sarah B two years ago, and a well respected Christian author by women like Shauna, Glennon and everyone else that counts. I'm five chapters in and already loving her book. Our mini-Campaigners group read the first chapter together tonight.

"I love people. It's what I know. I want us to live well and love well... The fullest parts of my life, the best memories, the most satisfying pieces of my story have always involved people."

"Love is really the most excellent way. One of the best parts of being human is other humans. It's true, because life is hard; but people get to show up for one another, as God told us to, and we remember we are loved and seen and God is here and we are not alone."

Monday nights at Young Life are always awesome, but there was something extra special about tonight. Maybe it's because we met at my apartment instead. Maybe it's because of the specific combination of girls that were here and the ways our lives have overlapped. Maybe it was all our talk of friendship and being grateful for love and our people. But there was something awesome going on tonight.

The best part of my life, the best part of my story, is the people. I wish I could do justice to these girls-- to tell you why I love Olivia, Rach, Hools, Cookie, Kayla, Chloe, Alli Sams, Brooke, Annie, Alana, Genna and Maddy so much. I wish you could hear where they've been and what they've learned along the way and where they're headed. I see God all over their stories. Living life with them, this is what it's all about. We're showing up, we're taking care of our home team, we're deciding that today, just regular today, is worth celebrating. 

We closed in prayer before heading home and one of the girls started praying like this, "I don't really feel true joy all that often, or know a lot about it, but when I'm with all these girls and everybody's talking I think that's it, like I'm dipping my toes into all this and it's neat." For the love. That's my kind of prayer.

Honorable blog titles:
"Am I allowed to bring my drink in?"
"All of my wildest dreams have come true--for real though."
"So I bought a car for $200 the other day."