My emotional setting is "Tumble Dry Low."

Slow stirrings. A slight melancholy through yonder window breaks, if you will. Short story short: somehow I recently learned that an old flame is getting married. Well, re-married. And it's weird. Well, more than weird. Weird is one of those ridiculous English words we made up because we don't want to take the time to really say how something feels - a grammatical junk drawer.

For those in places to worry about such emotions: don't. Seriously. This is natural. We are all human and we have all been connected to things, people and places in past moments. We have all had intimate encounters with various people throughout life and we all have watched them leave, taking with them pieces of us we can't quite reclaim.

Enter my favorite song of all-time. My ultimate "deserted island" answer before you ask the question. "Anna Begins." I've played it hundreds of times in my life and I listen to it still. I will give my thesis for the song's brilliance in a future post, I'm sure, but for my purposes:

"Kindness falls like rain. It washes me away. And Anna begins to change my mind..."

It's the story of how a relationship never leaves us in the same place it found us. And there's both a beauty and sorrow found within that statement. Past relationships, such as the aforementioned, left me in a destructive place marked by confusion, guilt and absolutely bitter sorrow. The loss was definitely profound in that moment.

Over time, other faces, other names would enter the picture and bring me to new places, and I would reciprocate the grand relational design. Sometimes I was the foreman on site, destroying the building I inhabited. Other moments, I was the structure hearing the person running away yelling for everyone to get out because it was going to explode.

But it's in this process that I found my Anna. The person who comes alongside and begins to change your mind about the way that life really works. Instead of just listening to the words, I found myself with the ability to say that kindness is also washing me away, that true love is really at work in my own life. It's the story of redemption at the deepest, most heartfelt level.

And this is true in every arena of life. A Biblical command to "Love your neighbor as yourself" takes on new meaning in this light. You are going to take people places today, so where will you take them? You will come in contact in the world, so what are you bringing to them? Because whether you feel empty-handed or not, you're giving something away with each interaction.

Adam ultimately ends his musings with "Oh, Lord. I'm not ready for this sort of thing." But, ready or not, we cannot choose to remain unaffected by the people around us. We are bound by the created order to each other and kindness will either wash us away or our destructive tendencies and patterns will bring down everyone around us.

For me, I'm thankful to have found someone who has begun to change my mind. And I am thankful for a community bound together at The Mercy House who understand this premise and embrace it as they embrace the world, hoping to spark relational change marked by peace, reconcilation and restoration...

There I needed that. I think the emotional spin cycle is done.