{click photo to enlarge}
I went on a crazy fun photo adventure in uptown Charlotte, NC late Sunday afternoon with an awesome friend. We drove around in search of a good location for skyline photos, and I think we found a pretty decent one. My city shots could use some technical improvement, but I love the Charlotte skyline and had a blast!
It’s been awfully quiet over here, no?
Technically it’s time for another photo of the week (and I do have one ready to go, so it will be up in the next day or so), and I know it’s past time for another devo thought, and I even considered doing a “5 Things” post because those are always fun and relatively easy, but since it’s been so long since I’ve actually “shown up” around here, I decided on a real post instead … with paragraphs and everything.
It’s certainly not for lack of content that I’ve been missing from this space. My energy has just been spent elsewhere.
This past month {maybe a little longer…} has been just plain full and, as usual, I struggle to find balance in the fullness. I love my community, my commitments, and my friends, but when I open the calendar on my too-smart-for-its-own-good phone to see multiple dots on each day of every weekend {and several in between} for a solid month, I get exhausted just thinking about it, tend to lose perspective, and then the temptation to pull away {and if I’m being really honest, to hide!} is great.
I suppose in those moments, maybe it’s a good thing that I DO have commitments and hiding is just not an option.
Truthfully, effortless and encouraging conversations with precious friends over meals, on the phone driving across town, during movie intros, late at night on bedroom floors, and even while “exploring” unfamiliar industrial parks keep me going through these seasons that can leave me feeling somewhat disconnected because of the fullness. Especially when my calendar is not the only one that pulls in far too many directions all at once … it seems to be a problem that plagues many around this time of year.
And although I enjoy social media, and I so appreciate each one of you, some moments – maybe even some seasons – just aren’t intended for sharing in real time via this blog or twitter or instagram.
So I keep going knowing that sometimes quiet is best and sometimes quiet {at least in this space} is just necessary. I’m not gone for good. I’m still writing. And as things begin to slow down I’ll show up around here with more than just a photo a little more frequently.
And while I am very much looking forward to a slightly slower paced summer and enjoying more Saturday mornings with a cup of coffee and a good book {soon to be happening poolside! woot!}, I just don’t want to miss being fully present for all of the really great moments {from graduations and weddings to beach weekends and beyond} that this season of fullness has to offer … because there are many. And for that, I am truly grateful.
What are you looking forward to this summer and what moments are you grateful for in this season?
As of this past weekend, my brother is officially a Notre Dame Law School graduate. And this photo represents him quite well.
Congratulations, Cooper!!
Because a girl pretty much can’t go wrong with a shiny new pair of go-with-anything patent peep-toe pumps…
note: while i did have a specific “here” and “there” in mind when i penned this, in some ways, we all have a “here” and “there”. it may be a physical location, a goal, a hope, a dream, or just a what if. but regardless of the what, i would encourage you to to think of your own “here” and “there” as you read. and then rest in the truth of His promises.
What makes me think if I can’t manage time and priorities here in relative comfort, stability and ease, that I can manage time and priorities there in the midst of potential discomfort and unknown?
What makes me think if I can’t reach outside of myself here to fully invest in others as I should, that I can fully invest there within a limited framework?
What makes me think if I can’t write here from my heart for me (much less for them), that I can write there so publicly?
What makes me think if I can’t find the balance and consistency in the Word here that is right, that I can be consistent there in new and unfamiliar surroundings?
Yet even as I continue to ask the questions, which all really boil down to just one question of my own ability, and begin to acknowledge the underlying fears, I already know the answer. It’s the same answer I received so powerfully and directly on that old hotel room floor in Ocean City six years ago.
I can’t. But HE can.
And as I hear that truth once again, as I not only hear it, but believe it, as it resonates deep within me, the Lord comes in gently and lovingly (though not painlessly) to once again strip me of my pride and self-sufficiency and independence. Because this relationship, this walking with Him, this following Him, was never intended to be that way.
None of this depends on me. It never did. This is not about me at all. It never was.
It’s about trusting in Him, leaning into Him, depending on Him. It’s about surrendering self and sacrificing independence. It’s about acknowledging His strength in my weakness, His sufficiency in my insufficiency, His righteousness in my unrighteousness.
Both my here and my there are His. For His purpose and for His glory.
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:12-14 (ESV)
This photo of the week of me and my mom’s dog, Mercy, hanging out on my parents’ back deck, comes to you instagram style (I’m @egallimore for those who are interested) because it just represents life right now. I honestly haven’t picked up my real camera once this week, and I’m not exactly in the most creative of modes at the moment, which is probably painfully obvious by my lack of recent posts.
But in other news, my bathroom finally sparkles again, one of my two-year-old’s at church used me as a human tissue this morning (that’s a high honor, y’all!), and I do actually have a post or two planned for this week.
What’s going on with you?
