4.18.2009

Where Was My Welcome Committee?

Today is my first day back home. I just spent the last three days on a road trip that sent Josh, Sam, Aaron and I through Indiana, into Ohio and back again. This trip was designed to allow Josh the opportunity to visit his brother and sister-in-law and for him to explore the possibility of attending seminary at Ashland University (www.ashland.edu/seminary). On the way home, I was going to get the chance to meet Megan -- a young lady I've been conversing with over the past few weeks. For all of us, the trip was meant to be eye-opening, revealing and an opportunity to find our callings, our destinations and, ultimately, ourselves.

Until I talked to Megan about the possibility of meeting on Friday, on our way home, I was just going to tag along for the ride -- I don't have anything better to do since I don't have a job and the friends I hang out with the most were going on this trip. So the first two days of the trip, I reasoned, had little to nothing to do with me -- I'm not interested in going to seminary, I'm not really too interested in moving to Ohio and I can't even find a job in Illinois, let alone one in Ohio!

I did manage, though, to find a hint of direction for my life in those first two days.

Visiting Ashland Seminary was an incredible experience. The staff and faculty -- particularly Eric and Glenn -- that helped us out were some of the coolest people I've met. Since that particular day was reserved for counseling majors, and since Josh isn't interested in counseling, there wasn't much for the two of us to do. Realizing that, Glenn and Eric stepped up to the plate to show us around the campus themselves, giving us a personalized tour. Glenn took us out for coffee, paying for our drinks from his own pocket, then walked us around the Ashland University campus and explained what services would be available to us as students. He also showed us the chapel that the church he pastors meets in.

After that, we took part in one of the seminary's chapel services. Josh and I both had a profound spiritual experience in that place. At eleven in the morning. On Thursday.

It just goes to show you that the Spirit is always available. Always.

During lunch, Glenn and Eric both sat with us and we discussed television and music and movies and comedians and politics; we even discussed the possibility of the school adding a new concentration (creative writing) to their Masters of Divinity degree -- very real things. These two people stripped themselves of their recruiter roles and became very real people.

After lunch, Eric took Josh and I to their archaeology museum. And by that, I mean "Eric broke into the archaeology museum for us."

There's a part of me that kinda wants to go to seminary after that experience. Perhaps I will blog on this later.

The next day, we went to Columbus and had an amazing time in an amazing city. There's a big part of me that would like to move there someday. Perhaps I will blog on this later too.

For me, meeting Megan was the highlight of the trip. I will definitely blog on this later.

I hated coming home. "Home." Home to a town I can't stand, to a house I can't stand, to a neighborhood I can't stand. "Home." Home to a place I've been wanting to leave since the moment I got here.

And where was my welcoming committee? All my friends knew I was in Ohio, or at least had plenty of resources available to find out I was in Ohio. I updated my Twitter several times, I even talked to some of them while on the road. Megan was the only one to ask me how my trip was when I got back. My welcoming committee was a hundred drunk NIU students milling about in the streets, partying and holding up traffic.

Don't hear me wrong -- I'm not complaining about my friends or anything like that. I'm not throwing myself a pity party here. What I am saying, though, is that in my mind, all of the events of the past three days are incredibly indicative of what I should be doing with my life. It could very well be time to move and Columbus, Ohio could very well be the place to move.

I'll be counting on a miracle to make that a reality, but I serve a great, big God Who specializes in the miraculous.

I'm not worried.

* * *

Be on the lookout for another couple of blogs, chronicling the events of the past three days.