God is our refuge and strength, a help always near in times of great trouble.
Psalm 46:1 (CEB)
Today, I am grateful for the times the connection of The United Methodist Church helped me out when the way was not clear.
When Sheryl and I got married in August, we went on our honeymoon for a week. We drove west and ended up in Las Vegas via the Grand Canyon. We returned to Oklahoma and then packed up all our belongings in a U-Haul and the next week drove the other way to Atlanta.
As a part of our wedding gift, her parents sprung for the car carrier on the back of the truck meaning that we could take turns driving that behemoth! It was big and lengthy and neither of us had driven anything that large before. I had driven plenty of 15 passenger vans full of youth but they handled a bit differently. Once when Sheryl was driving we came upon road construction and a very narrow but long bridge. She could see it coming and shouted, "What do I do?" I replied, "Point it straight and keep going!"
She made it through without a scratch!
We finally made it to our destination (or close to it) and we parked the U-Haul and backed the car off the trailer and went to find our apartment. We were staying in married student housing at Emory University where I was going to Candler School of Theology. We ended up in this part of the world because I was planning to be an itinerant preacher. This meant we would not be picking the town we would live in once we returned to Oklahoma. So I suggested that Sheryl pick where we go to graduate school. I said, "There are thirteen United Methodist seminaries in the United States. If you can find a school you like near one of them, I'll go to that one."
She wanted to get her MBA at the University of Georgia so Candler it was!
Fortunately, there were some United Methodists from Oklahoma already enrolled as students. One of them was Shannon Davis who is the current pastor at Woodward First UMC. Shannon and I overlapped at OSU and were active at the Wesley Foundation there together. Shannon was still there when Sheryl arrived on campus.
Shannon got the call that everyone loves to get.
"We just arrived in town. Can you help us unload our U-Haul?"
He never hesitated. In fact, he recruited some other seminary students to help us!
We parked in the street on the top of the hill and of course, our apartment was up a bit more of a hill and on the second floor! But we got it unloaded and the vehicle returned.
This may not sound like much but when everything seems unknown, a friendly face who is willing to help means the world.
Sometimes, the help has come from United Methodists I didn't even know.
Once, when we were working on a VIM trip for tornado cleanup in Joplin, Missouri, our suburban broke down. We needed to use it to get our people to the worksite but it was in the shop. The church secretary let us borrow her suburban (which was much newer and nicer than ours).
She said, "Mine has a hitch. You can take mine." We were hauling a trailer on this trip as well.
When someone from her church said, "You don't even know them. Why would you do that?"
She responded matter-of-factly, "They're United Methodists."
The connection remains important. I often find that where I encounter the cross-and-flame, I find a kindred spirit who is willing to lend a helping hand.
As we move through Lent, who has helped you along the way? Who can you think of that may need your generosity of time or support in the days to come?
It may just be a part of our identity!
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| Brooke and Emily give up their spring break to help in Joplin in 2012. |
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