Come Back Down
A few weeks ago I was telling my dad about an old friend of mine I had texted to let her know I was thinking of her. As we got talking I told him these days I feel like I have the opportunity to stay in touch with pretty much everyone from every different season of my life. But he asked me if that was a good thing? He told me that it was good to shoot her a thinking of you text, but that didn’t mean I needed to rekindle the friendship to the level that it once was. A simple text was just perfect.
I’ve been thinking on this a bit since, and I guess it sort of bugged me at first. With social media and phone numbers, FaceTime, emails, DM’s, and everything in between, we can always stay up to date with everyone we have ever known. To me, that is a sweet gift because I have so much love for different people who have come in and out of my life. - Enter my dad’s wisdom -
Just because we can stay in touch with so many people doesn’t mean we should. My dad mentioned that God puts people in our lives for specific reasons and periods of time. Some are meant to stay longer than others, and other’s you need only for a time. The part that makes me mad is that I have so much love and care for the people in my life I want to hold onto all of them forever. But I’m not sure that’s how it should work. If you struggle to be everything to everyone like I think I have to be, then you might relate to feeling the need to stay in touch with everyone, be perfectly intentional, and always in the know about their life. But you and I only have so much space to fill in our brain and we don’t have that large of an emotional capacity when you really think about it.
The settling part of all of this is the impact people have on your life. There is a sweetness when you think about someone you haven’t seen in a really long time, but they might be someone you spent good quality time with for a season. There is a sweetness when you think about someone who doesn’t walk the earth any longer, but the time you shared encourages you to live life a bit more. There is sweetness in the song that comes on, that ties your memory right to one specific person. Pictures, places, trips, scents, vehicles. They can all unlock memories in your brain and flood your heart with remembrance. We don’t have to stay up to date with everyone we’ve ever known. People come in and out of our lives, and come back sometimes. God knows what He’s doing every time.
Old Ford trucks, blue corduroy, Eric Church, cheerios, purple drank, Bagdad KY, redbull, USA overalls, Sals, Porsche 911’s, black nails, strawberry cobbler, the durbin parking lot, Purdue volleyball, Krispy Kreme, watermelon juice, and Mr. Zeller’s school bus seem like a crazy compilation, but I could tell you who each thing makes me think about.
There is some song, some artifact, in someone else’s life that they trace back to you. People come and go but how we treat them, how we show up for them, how we speak to them, how we love them, well, that stays. Memories are good. Phone calls and thinking of you texts are good. Truthfully, I don’t think we understand the importance of who is in our life currently. And we probably aren’t supposed to understand. Remember not to stay stuck on those who aren’t meant to be in your life anymore, and let the memories do the rest.
