Angels Unawares

Most pictures featuring footprints in the sand show them going away from the onlooker, but this picture does just the opposite.  In it, you see my feet are taking me TOWARDS the viewer, which plays around with one's sense of perspective.  One of my friends who is also a clergywoman asked on my Facebook page if I'd share some of my thoughts on how my sabbatical has changed me,  about what I've learned, about how my perspective has shifted. As a result, here's a first installment in response to her query.  That is, after all, one of the main reasons I'm continuing my blog in the first place.

There's a saying that you can't step in the same river twice, and there's a lot of truth in that.  Travel and interacting with people who are different from you changes you and expands your horizons.  The world  paradoxically becomes smaller as you see how much we all have in common and bigger because you see that just because we do differ in some ways, other people aren't necessarily doing it wrong.

When I was planning for my trip, I felt there was something deeply symbolic about the fact that I would turn 50 while in the UK because it's such a milestone.  I was a little nervous about traveling alone for so many weeks and somehow felt that if I didn't do it before turning 50, I might never do it.  Silly, maybe, but I've seen it happen to so many women.  It starts with one or two missed opportunities. A slight nervous apprehension over a chance to really test themselves and stretch the boundaries of what's possible can lead to paralyzing fear of what might go wrong, and slowly their world becomes a little less expansive and then it shrinks a wee bit more every week, every month, every year.   I am determined not to let that happen to me!

I admit that I was nervous at first.  I knew I'd need assistance from a lot of people whom I didn't know, and I worried about making a nuisance of myself,  even worried that I was trying to overreach myself by trying to establish credibility as a researcher.  After all, I don't have a Ph.D.  My doctorate is a Doctor of Ministry degree, and while it certainly involved reading, researching, and writing, it is not as demanding nor is it as academic as a Ph. D.  But the Spirit nudged me to display some holy boldness, and trusting that God was leading me in my venture, I responded.

Since my Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology degrees are both from Duke, I started by gaining admittance to their Wesley collection, and I quickly found that help is generally available if asked for. I learned how to handle priceless letters and diaries and even had a close encounter with John Wesley's hair.  I felt emboldened to reach out to various scholars within United Methodism and and also from the Church of the Nazarene, and nearly everyone I emailed or otherwise contacted took time to make suggestions, to put me in touch with key people, and even to smooth my way so that I would be able to gain access to the John Rylands Library in Manchester where the Methodist Archives are held.

I also became friends via e-mail and Facebook with the administrative assistant from Wesley Memorial Church in Epworth.  She thoughtfully made sure I knew how to arrange my stay at the Red Lion there, set me up with a kind couple who took me to the church my ancestors attended before departing from England in 1621 for Virginia, and even invited me into her own home to eat and interact with her family while she washed and dried my clothes.  They say you may entertain angels unawares; I can tell you that angels may be entertaining YOU unawares.

What does all of this have to do with my friend's questions?  Well, I discovered that I was learning just as much from being with people whose lives weren't much like mine as I was from scouring the papers at the New Room or letters at the John Rylands.  Why?  Could it be because we listened when we talked with each other and we listened together for what God was saying so we could respond? My travels weren't nearly as extensive as Wesley's, but I  encountered ordinary people who had extraordinary love even for a stranger, and their example of Christian warmth and welcome as shown to me continues to inform my interactions each day. 

When have YOU experienced grace and a profound sense of welcome as a stranger?  How have you been a channel for blessing for a stranger in YOUR place of business or at church or at home?  Who needs your help?  God is inviting you to be someone's angel as you love the stranger, your neighbor, your sister or brother, whoever crosses your path!  How will you respond?