My grandpa used to drink about 10 cups of black coffee a day. As a coffee drinker myself, that is something I aspire to - maybe not 10, but the ability to drink and love black coffee. A friend of mine this summer could not understand drinking something that you had to acquire a taste to - forcing yourself to consume something you don't even like at first. But I love it. I love the thought of working your way up to something - even if it's acquiring a taste for coffee. I admire people who drink their coffee black. It's raw. It's real. There's literally no sugar-coating to mask the taste. No facade. You get what you ask for.
Life can be like that sometimes. Sugar-coated, masked, a distraction from what is really underneath. And sometimes it's better like that; easier to have smiling faces than painstakingly acquire a taste for the junk below. But what is real? This summer was raw and real; it was a time of realizing that what has been swept under the rug needs to be dealt with, that there are people willing to walk alongside me in the not-so-pretty side of life, that God is still God and still good even when I kick and scream and yell.
This summer was raw and real. I got to journey alongside girls as they came to understand their identity and process through guilt and shame, I got to ask hard questions about the meaning of life to people who don't know/believe the gospel, I saw people cry and got to cry along with them, I had a years worth of junk in my life uprooted, I got to love and be loved, I got to speak to coworkers about love and forgiveness, I was reminded what it looks like to thrive. It was hard, but it was good.
Life can be hard. It can be one huge mountain that you feel like you'll never get to the top of. It can be a huge glass box that you feel is constantly being hammered. It can be struggles. But one thing I learned this summer is I'll take the struggle, the climb, the fight any day over coasting through life. Because it's raw, and it's real.
As Ke$ha says, "I don't wanna think about what's gonna be after this, I wanna just live right now." And that's what we did this summer - we lived.
In other news, I enjoyed my first cup of black coffee this summer :)
