My Phenomenological Reality

That's really too big of a word for me to use or even remember, but it stuck with me from one of my psych classes (I've taken two, but this is my first time using it). I looked it up just because: "Phenomenology studies structures of conscious experience as experienced from the first-person point of view, along with relevant conditions of experience"- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. And yes, "My Phenomenological" is a redundancy.

I spent the plane ride home feeling extremely blessed and the verse from Ecclesiastes about three strands was on my mind.

"Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." (Eccl 4:9-12)

So I spent the hour drawing a picture of a tree with three roots which were braided together to form the tree trunk. Veins run through each braid beginning in the soil and then pushing out of the branches becoming the crown of the tree on which leaves and figs and such grow.

Anyways that's not my point- that's just an illustration of how much I love you guys, Jesus, the trinity, and how blessed I feel by your deep roots in Him. I'm blessed by your diligence in seeking the Lord and the ways you both continue to grow in Him every year. Thank you for your wisdom. May He continue to guide our thoughts and studies.

OK. My point. I spent the car ride home catching up with my dad and we talked a lot about the coffee shop. About 5 minutes into the conversation his body language started to show that the realization of his daughter truly, really, actually pursuing the dream of opening a coffee shop with her friends was setting in. SO THEN we had a real conversation about opening a coffee shop. We talked about the reasons why we would open it and what it would be about. He knows that we wouldn't be in it to make money, but that I have two people in my life who I care about deeply and who care for me and we'd be in this thing together. We talked a lot about the reality of the situation. He didn't cringe too badly. In fact, considering he (mostly) knows the good, the bad, and the ugly, it went surprisingly well (the mostly being necessary because I don't even know the good, the bad, and the ugly). He still supports the dream, but now with the hesitancy and semblance of a father concerned for his daughter's well being, but he doesn't question our purpose in our dream or our intentions behind it. Neither does he question our faith in God being the director and guiding force behind our desires.

As I begin (barely) to grasp the reality of this dream I am in awe of our God. I am in awe at seeing our lives through my father's eyes. I never would have imagined choosing such a lifestyle, and yet now I can't imagine a life of anything but. No other life than one radically centered on the self-sacrificial love of our Lord could be satisfying. Who knows where we'll end up, but thank you for this morning.