sobering lives: [re] thinking part two

So, I've been quiet lately. "Lately" meaning a couple of months. I've been quiet on the blog and quiet with those closest to me. I've been processing a whole lot, and I'm almost ready to open up again. Here's a sample of what I've been [re] thinking:

[number two] - people's lives are sobering.

Planting a church has been more relationally disappointing than I thought. Building relationships hasn't been hard, it's keeping them honest and open that has been tougher than I anticipated.

These past few months, I've seen everything from people missing meetings [minor] to friends lying straight to my face [whoa]. I'm not shocked that it has happened, but that I didn't think it would happen this much. I've also witnessed the effects of fear and disillusionment on people's lives and it's just plain hard to deal with. So much so that I couldn't even figure out how to talk about it, much less blog about it.

It's brought out a new honesty in me. Where I had been tentative before, I'm much more willing to call out something that seems off or wrong, both in others and in myself [hence this particular series of posts].

It's also brought out a sobriety in me concerning life. I may have been intellectually aware that people were sinful and the effects of that can be gruesome, but I didn't really acknowledge that in my everyday interactions with people. Much like drunk people can sometimes not be aware of what's going on around them, so I was not really sober to the fact that people really can be ugly, me included.