Blast From the Past!

Hola!

      So it has been a little bit since I have posted on here and I first just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for reading and thank you for being interested! Thank you for thinking of me and thank you just for checking this out! I have soooo many thoughts right now and well I guess they will just have to wait because that’s right, get excited, its story time!

      So the story actually starts waaaayy back in 11^th grade I believe it was (yes I still remember it). I was on a mission trip in Philadelphia and we were riding the subway to our next soup kitchen we were serving at. So we are all in the same church, from Matthews United Methodist and actually all wearing the same youth group t-shirt. So a man curiously comes up to me to start a conversation. We talk about what we are doing there in Philadelphia and what we hoped to accomplish and how. I remember he was very interested in hearing more about what I knew about the Bible and just my beliefs and how they affected me. So as it is a train, his stop came up and he said “My name is Brother Chris by the way, but hey give me a call, I’d like to hear more about this and get to know the church you are staying in.” He hastily jotted down his contact information and the best time to call on a yellow sheet of paper and disappeared off the train. At this point in the story I would love to say that I contacted him and connected him, but when the time came for me to call, when he said he would be free, I vividly remember asking to borrow a phone from the leader and simply not having the courage. “Tomorrow” I reassured myself. Tomorrow came and went and I forgot (or selectively did not remember). I'm really not sure what, if anything, would have happened had I called, but I remember this story very well. However, I kept that yellowed piece of paper.

      So years later I find that I still have that paper, and although the hastily written number is most likely useless and certainly faded, I keep the paper intentionally. To me this paper is a reminder of a mistake, not that I am just beating myself up about it, but that I am simply remembering an opportunity just to be kind and step out of my comfort zone and act. Act upon the opportunity laid so perfectly and easily in front of me. I was scared. So fast-forward to this year. So as I moved into my office I had a corkboard filled only with pushpins. I brought in random pictures of myself and friends, family and just landscapes and at the back of the envelope of pictures; I find this yellow sheet of folded paper, reading “Brother Chris 6:00-8:00pm” and a phone number. I pinned it to the bottom of the board as a reminder to listen when the spirit says listen, to stay when the spirit says stay and to act when the spirit says act. I tell this story, not show guilt, but as a personal reminder of the importance of moving and maybe just a little reminder or myself and everyone else, may we not forget to act.