"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think"
Christopher Robin to Pooh
A.A. Milne, Creator of Winnie-the-Pooh
I remember when I first heard that one of the participants joining nieuCommunities this year was a girl who had half-sleeves on both arms... I thought, "Oh good, a normal person."
Definition: nor-mal [nawr-muhl] - adjective
conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural; serving to establish a standard; approximately average
Ok, so my initial assessment was off a bit. Christy Lynn Scott is definitely not normal. That's not to say she's 'abnormal,' per se, she's just... well, she's special - wait, not in a 'short-bus, touch-me-and-I'll-stab-you-in-the-eye-with-a-fork,' kind of special... just special... to me, Jasheen and Gabrielle.
(and to think... I fancied myself a writer at one point)
Like most of the participants, Christy really didn't know what she was joining when she came to Glasgow this year. And like most of the participants, she had her (un?)fair share of personal and spiritual struggles. Aside from being Gabrielle's babysitter - of which she turned out to be spectacular - Jasheen and I got to know Christy most intimately as we journeyed with her through some of the more challenging times of her stay here. Our love and care for Christy grew more and more as she demonstrated a sincere level of vulnerability and honesty with us. And the one constant that we recognized in Christy, amidst times of loneliness, despair, frustration and even severe nightmares, was her unwavering commitment to find God in her circumstances.
Often times I believe that if we're not experiencing the JOY that we know comes from our wholeness in Christ, we think we're not experiencing God. When in fact, there are so many more ways for us to encounter God's presence in our lives. If life is hard or not-fun... if things aren't going our way or to our liking, we think God is absent. In other words, when we don't see God's goodness in our day-to-day lives, we assume He's absent... because of course, God is all about fun, fun, fun all the time, time, time.
Well I think I can say with accuracy, that the times Christy experienced God's overwhelming goodness while she was here, were few and far between, but that never stopped her pursuit of God, nor did it infringe upon her belief that God was still actively present in her life and circumstances. She intentionally sought out people and places where she could engage God and serve others - two of her highest values - and it was never a mystery that the Bible was a constant source of nourishment that she returned to regularly for strength and comfort.
I think it's safe to say that for most of her stay here in Glasgow, Christy was misunderstood - often times beheld at face-value, when there was so much more beneath the exterior. Jasheen and I were invited to see beneath the exterior, and we were blessed for it.
Christy left this morning, returning to southern California to begin a new chapter in her life. Grad school? Make-up artist to the stars? Aerospace engineer? God only knows. But she didn't leave before joining Jasheen, Gabrielle and I for supper last night at our favorite 'fine food emporium' in town - Kember & Jones (shock & awe - it was Christy's first time). We soaked up our last moments together and talked of plausible times in the near future that we might be able to see each other again. As tears streamed down Christy's and Jasheen's cheeks outside Tennents pub on the corner of Byres Road and Highburgh Road, it was hard to watch them hug and say goodbye. After one tearful goodbye two-and-a-half years ago, Jasheen swore never to get close enough to another participant to hurt like that again -- oh well, two-and-a-half years is a good run as far as personal oaths go, don't you think?
We'll miss you, Christy... and we love you!
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