Hello Broadway!
We all have things -- hobbies, jobs, activities, that we put all of ourselves into. That we focus on to the point of exclusion, that, when they're complete, we find that we've left a bit of our soul behind in that project, however large or small it may have been.
There's a Greek word that describes this: meraki. It's usually used in reference to art or cooking, but you can apply it to anything, really.
For me, I put a lot of myself into my poetry and into crafts I do, like leatherwork. And sometimes when I've completed a project, it feels like I've lost a part of myself to it; not in a bad way, but certainly in a way that's irrevecoble.
It's...easy, in some ways, to let that happen with those things. With hobbies that I love and things that bring me joy.
It can be and frequently is much, much harder to act with meraki in other contexts. To put all of ourselves into...helping others, into being kind, into trying to be a better person, continually and always.
But it being hard...doesn't really excuse us from the effort, does it? It doesn't excuse us from the expectation that God has of us, to act always with love and to always try even as we sometimes -- often -- fail.
Because it's not necessarily about succeeding. Just like it's not about writing the perfect poem or whatever leather craft I was making being perfect. The imperfections, arguably, are the places where I leave the most of myself, in those projects.
And the imperfections in our lives, in our souls, are where we let God in, let Jesus in, to help us do the work of making the world a better, kinder place.
