Going home, part 2

This past weekend I went home for the second time in two weeks.  The first time was to visit my parents in the town where I grew up.  This time I went to the town where I spent my last year of college and another six years, prior to entering seminary.  I wasn't originally going to be a minister, you know.  From the time I was very young I wanted to work in a hospital laboratory, just like my aunt did before me.  In college, I majored in Medical Technology and trained at a wonderful hospital.  And when I graduated, I went to work as a blood bank technologist, just like I always dreamed I would.

There I met a wonderful woman who graduated the year before me, and when she was ready to get an apartment close to the hospital, she invited me to share it with her.  And for six years we shared our living space and our lives.  Eventually, she met a nice man, and after I left for seminary, they got engaged and then married.  But in the years before that, it was Rachel and Bill and me, usually traveling in three separate cars wherever we went.  

They were the first to encourage me when I answered my call to ministry, first as a lay missioner, then as a ministerial candidate.  They helped me load up a U Haul and drove me to Durham to start school at Duke Divinity School   A year later I went home to be in their wedding.  After that my trips were usually overnight visits on my way to and from my parents' when they lived in Alabama.  

A few years ago Bill retired from Clemson University and Rachel continued to work at the same hospital where we trained.  Their lives had the same rhythm that they had had for 25 years.  My life was totally different.  Since leaving there in 1987, I have lived in 11 different towns, 10 states and one foreign country.  My world view expanded by the variety and quantity of the people I met and the different places I visited.  They were a family who lived in the same house where Bill grew up as a child.  Me, I don't even know where I'll be in another year or two, or what we'll be doing when Shawn retires.

Bill died last week of complications from diabetes.  He had not been well since this April, but I didn't know because we hadn't talked in a while.  But Friday, when I was sitting at my computer thinking about dinner, I received an email from Rachel informing me of his death.  And in that moment, I knew I had to go.  And I'm so glad I did.

I saw a lot of people from my past this weekend.  Previous colleagues from the hospital and church members greeted me as a long lost friend or relative.  Over 200 people crowded the small, country church where his funeral was held.  It was a testimony to the love and respect that people had for him.  And I was really humbled when the minister invited me to officiate at the committal service, where for the first time in a long time, I was able to look into the faces of those who first recognized my call and sent me into the world to preach and teach in the name of Jesus.

And so to all of them, and to God, I say "Thank You."  I live this amazing life - not one that I ever imagined for myself - and I'm able to do it where I do, in the way I do, in large part because of them.  It's hard to fathom that 28 years ago, my roommate's boyfriend invited me to church and I went.  And it started a cascade of events that tumbled onward to this very day.

Lesson Learned:  Never underestimate the power that you have to affect other people... to bring about change in people's lives... to encourage them... to help them take a road less traveled.  Be a blessing, indeed!

"Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any sharing in the Spirit, any sympathy, complete my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other.  Don't do anything with selfish purposes but with humility think of others as better than yourselves.  Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others." (Philippians 2:1-4 in the Common English Bible)