Pocohantas

Dear friend,

Have you  ever had a friend that is the sweetest human being ever: funny, kind, straightforward and  sometimes they open their mouth and just pure wisdom rolls out.

I have a friend like that.

She is wise beyond her years and it amazes me.  I see her and I talk with her and I leave amazed with more questions that I came with but my questions are all answered.

I am a Disney fan - I promise this will relate.

The trio of us (myself and my two best friends) go on road trips.  My one friend, Jackie, and I belt at the top of our lungs.  We both grew up singing and performing so that is just the natural thing to do.  Belt and sing at the top of your lungs...we would both argue it is a great stress reliever.

Mandy, the other sweet friend of mine, is normally in the back seat just listening.  She will rarely belt with us and if she does sing it is a sweet voice that carries above Jackie and my obnoxiously loud singing and harmonizing.

BUT - the minute any song from the Disney movie "Pocahontas" comes on that all changes.  Jackie and I will stop singing just to hear sweet Mandy let the world hear her voice.  It is her FAVORITE and it brings everyone around joy to see her face light up.

Now remember that friend I asked you about? The wise one?  Well in our trio that happens to be Mandy.  Mandy.  5'1, always smiling, constantly giggling. Mandy.

So this time it will be about Mandy - Jackie will have a story of her own another time :)

Before I left from my Thanksgiving break of my sophomore year of college, I was sitting with Mandy talking about college and the difficulties of finances I was having at the time.  She thought for what seemed like 20 minutes (in reality it was just a frame of silence for about 20 seconds).

She took a deep breath and told me something that I will never forget.

This is what she said:

"You know the compass from Pocahontas (to which I answered with "duh")

That represents us.  We go through the same challenge that Pocahontas faced.

Christ is always north.  That compass constantly points towards Christ.

Where we face changes where Christ is in our lives.  If we are dead north we can walk and we can know that he is where we are facing.

Sometimes we are a little left and we have to figure out how to get back to north.

Sometimes we are a little right and we hit that challenge of "where am i" yet again.

And then sometimes we are facing south were north is long behind us.

But do you realize that the north arrow does not disappear?

It is constantly pointing.  God does not leave you.  Whether you are facing all the way south or a little north east....you will always know that God is there.

North is sometimes hard to find.

But that is the amazing part of our relationship with God.

He is willing to help us find north by simply being there with us and pointing the arrow the right way.

All we need to do is listen."

What?

She took a story that I had grown to love and made it into my favorite because of a simple compass.

I left that conversation with it buzzing between my ears.

A couple weeks later I get this message from that dear friend:

"Thinking about you today sweet friend.  Your compass might just be like hers today...just a little to the left... but just like she did, you'll figure it out too."

I leave you with Mandy's wise words - God is there.  All we must do is listen.  He will help us but just like "north"....he is steadfast and not going anywhere.

With love,
JoJo