Monday night I had a really angry dream. Afterwards, I woke up angry and a general feeling of grumpiness just kind of stuck with me. I was running on the treadmill and each step was an anger inducing motion. I thought it would go away after the 3rd mile, but not so much. I went back to the house and showered, got ready for work and it hit again. I had to return something and I realized that in my haste to leave my house I had left the garage door open. So, I drove back home, stepped inside and turned off all the lights that I left on 30 minutes prior, locked everything down and then closed the garage. On my way to work, I had a city bus cut me off and then the driver “blessed me”.
I decided that Tuesday Morning was shaping up to be a Monday reincarnated! I went to my favorite coffee shop and decided I needed to do some reading. While I was sitting there I met
a couple that had been married for 50+ years. They were sweet to each other and they were funny! I watched them and listened to them and I felt myself liking them – a lot! When they left the coffee shop I told them that it was a blessing to have met them. He laughed at me and said that I was misusing that phrase. That I wasn’t really blessed to meet them but that it might have been nice to meet them. I told him that I understood what he was saying, but that indeed it had been a blessing to meet them and that my soul was more at peace because of our encounter. He smiled, shook my hand and left.
When Paul was leaving Miletus, he knew that his life and his ministry would be forever changed as a result of the ensuing voyage. He knew that he was going to be imprisoned and he knew it would possibly lead to his death. The Ephesians that met him in Miletus also knew this and they pleaded with Paul not to leave – not to go to Jerusalem, but to stay with them and “be safe”. They wept bitterly over the loss of this relationship. This happened a lot to Paul on his voyage to Jerusalem – his arrest and the uncertainty of his future was a deep concern for the people that loved him so much!
Paul is often accused of being a grump. We read his letters and see his exasperation with the church. We see his “feud” with Barnabas, his open rebuke of Peter and his quick wit that’s
directed to the High Priests. Yet, Paul was not just grumpy – he was a much beloved person! He was a person who blessed people deeply. He was a person that the early church wanted to have around them. He was smart and he was passionate and he was kind and he was loving and he was willing to sacrifice even his very life for the Love of Christ and for the Love of the Bride of Christ.
After meeting the couple at my coffee shop, I felt different. I was still struggling with my grumpiness but I also found that my short fuse was maybe not quite as short. I found myself blessed with a peace that didn’t come from the couple but came from a realization that there is more than my frustrations. I felt a touch and whisper at that moment that seemed to say, “you’re angry, you may not know why, but I want you to breathe a minute – relax”. I didn’t want that couple to leave, but I sure did want to have the presence that they blessed me with that morning.
That feeling stayed with me the rest of the day, I was still struggling, but I found myself more and more relaxed. When I’d start to boil, I’d remember that couple and their smile. By the time I got home, I felt better. My kids weren’t irritating me, my workload seemed doable and my breathing was slower and more deliberate. I don’t know what got me so worked up, but I do
know that all it took was an encounter or two to help me find peace and hear God’s whisper of Love.
My prayer since then is that I will be a presence that brings peace. I pray that I and you would be like a type of Paul that is passionate and brutally loving.
May we be a people that folks want to be around because we “Bless others with Peace.”
May we be the blessing someone else needs to maybe reorient their day!