(That title is purely in an effort to entertain Lorraine, who apparently thinks long blog-post titles are funny...)This is our good friend, Ryan jamming with E. & S... we stopped by his house (a TOTAL bachelor pad) on our way over to the coast a couple of weeks ago. We haven't made it over to visit him since he bought his home and wanted to be able to picture him on his couch when we were talking to him on the phone.
For those of you who don't know, Ryan lived with us for six months in the winter and spring of 2003. It was totally a God thing, how he came into our lives. He and Asia met in the bathroom at work - Ryan was getting his Master's of Social Work and was interning at the office, and within weeks, he was living in the spare room off our kitchen. Sounds strange maybe to people that don't really do the open home thing we've always had going on... but Asia and I have had numerous opportunities to have people live with us over the years and when you know it's right, well you just know.
I'll be the first to admit though, I had my doubts about Ryan. When he came to us (that sentence starter sounds terrifyingly like a story of a pet adoption...) he was a little on the needy side. Asia would spend literally hours in Ryan's room with him, counseling him and encouraging him... I really didn't know him at all and of course didn't feel like I could jump in and help at all, so there were some awkward times... over time though, that all settled down and we found a rhythm for living together, and we (meaning the whole Goins family) came to love Ryan like family.
What kind of family, I'm not sure. Ryan is sort of like a younger brother to us, and sort of like a son, and totally a friend. While it may be difficult to define, our relationship with him has found a comfortable (and comforting) balance. Where we were initially the givers - he has paid us back ten-fold in laughter and challenging conversation. In being pseudo parents to him at times, he has given us opportunities to grow our abilities to counsel and advise and mentor and teach. We've learned from his deep love for people, his desire to always deepen his faith and his amazing ability to embrace opportunities to share Jesus with others.
We are blessed to know him. To quote a terrible movie we watched last night, whenever I think of Ryan, I feel like I "should really go buy God a bottle of wine or a quiche or something..." - just some sort of gift of gratitude for our groovy friend and the pleasure of having him in our lives.
I never cease to be amazed at God's ability to provide for us.
True community is such a blessing....once you have experienced the real thing, you can never go back to contrived community. Good on you and Asia for opening yourselves up to the pain and the pleasure of loving people genuinely. Corey
ReplyDeleteOh Kelly - you really don't want to know. It was just a horrible attempt at romantic comedy that was TOTALLY contrived and unbelievably predictable. Although I did pull several funny lines out of it... at one point the heroine said (in defense of an Air Supply poster in her childhood room) "Some of their lesser known ballads are surprisingly poignant..." Cracked me up! Okay, I'll tell you, but you must promise NOT to watch it. It was called "The Wedding Date". There.
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