The Road to Damascus

Note to self: Don't plan a beach vacation so close to Girl Scout Cookie time. Peanut Butter Patties and swimsuits don't really go together.

I'm calmer today. In fact, today was so calm and mundane that I thought I might not have enough material for blogging. But then I went to Wal-Mart and, really, can you go to Wal-Mart and not come out with a story?Things got interesting in the coffee aisle. A woman approached me, tentatively, asking in broken English if she could ask me a question. I was afraid it had something to do with coffee, about which I know nothing. (In fact, to prove how little I know about coffee....Hugh Downs came to where I work for an event a few years ago and I offered him some coffee. Problem was, I had no idea how to get the coffee out of the thing catering brought it in...it was one of those deals where you have to press down on the top....and Hugh Downs had to take pity on me and show me how. Embarassing!!).

But, it wasn't a coffee question, it was about cocoa. Chocolate questions I can handle. She was standing in front of several rows of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate looking for cocoa.

"Cocoa for baking?" I asked her.

"Eh, yes, cocoa to bake cake," she said.

There were a lot of people in Wal-Mart and she really could have asked a dozen other people in that aisle. But, there I was, perhaps the most clueless person there when it comes to cooking, charged with the task of finding this woman some cocoa to bake cake.

"That cocoa is for drinking. Cocoa for baking is in another aisle," I tell them, hoping I'm right.

Her friend watched my cart while we departed for the baking aisle.

She told me they are from Damascus and she's here to study. I would have like to have talked with her more about that, but honestly, I was so focused on finding the cocoa, I couldn't really think of anything else.

Finally, I saw an aisle with flour in it and knew that had to be the cocoa aisle. I found it and told her "this is unsweatened cocoa."

"Unsweatened cocoa to bake cake?," she asked.

"Yes, to bake cake," I tell her, still hoping I was right.

I then went back for my cart and told her friend she could find her in aisle 8 with the cocoa. She nodded that she understood.

I love talking to people from other countries, if for nothing else, to hear the accents. So, that was kind of fun. By the way, if there are any single guys reading this...I don't know about the rest of Damascus, but these women were gorgeous! If that's what they all look like, I want to be from Damascus!

As I completed my shopping, I started thinking about Damascus, trying to remember what I know about it. I knew there was a Bible story about Damascus, the road to Damascus and something happening to someone. But, I must admit, I couldn't remember the details, so I came home and Googled it. An article jogged my memory... Jesus revealed himself to Saul (who became Paul) on the road to Damascus, in a very big way. Saul hadn't been the greatest guy in the world (persecuted the church) until that life changing moment. He went on to become one of God's greatest instruments in Biblical times. He wrote a several books of the Bible.

In present day, I think people who go through such a transformation in their spirituality have some of the greatest opportunities to share their faith...to show the power of God's forgiveness...to show how no matter how bad things were before, everything can be different because of that forgiveness. I think it's cool that I got the chance to think about this on Good Friday.

So, it's only a couple of days now until I get to experience the results of my small-scale "road to damascus" moment. That moment came when I told Chris to go ahead and get me a plane ticket for Hawaii. That moment marked a huge change in attitude for me. I'd been wanting to go to Hawaii ever since that episode of "The Batchelor: An Officer and a Gentleman" where they went to Pearl Harbor. It all looked so poignant and romantic. Of course, that was television and I'm sure my experience will be more of an elbowing through tourists one, but anyway.....I'd decided watching TV that night that I wanted to go there, but knew I never would because the plane ride would be way too long. But, you know, I had to come to the realization that God is in control. He's going to take care of me and I need to stop worrying so much.

I'm reading Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller (a great book, by the way) and on the cover is a quote that sums it all up for me.

"A reminder that life was meant to be lived, not just gotten through."

So, off I go, ready to live this experience.............