ohbloodyhell8

Obviously I would love to write that the right place and time involved meeting someone like Kenneth Branagh or Uncle Stevie.  No such luck.

However I was in the right place at the right time for a person at work today.  She had some concerns about a topic and, in my humble opinion, God sent the Holy Spirit on down to make sure we connected.  Our conversation turned to some works by Edwidge Danticat.  Well, I got excited right away.  I’ve known of her work for about a decade and had just read an article written by Danticat that a friend had posted on fb.  I go on fb to share the article with the person and then we chatted for a bit.  The person then shared that one part of the situation was about Haiti and her experiences, peripheral though they may have been, that have shaped her thoughts, negatively, about the country.  Also, she was faced with the dilemma of dealing with some materials that go against her beliefs as a Christian.

Well, bust my buttons, I thought to myself.  The person who had posted the Danticat article had spent time in Haiti.  I shared that my friend had spent three weeks in Haiti a couple of years ago.  She returned from her three week trip about three days before the earthquake hit.  She was impacted by the country and then the earthquake so much so that she is in the middle of spending a year there through Beyond Borders.

Together this person and I looked at some of the pictures of my friend in Haiti.  I asked her to think of what could have shaped the lives of the people she had interactions with that could have made them hurtful to other people.  We talked about the materials that seemingly go against her beliefs.  I told her I was not trying to make her do something she didn’t feel comfortable doing, but think of Jesus.  He’s called at times a rabbi, a teacher.  Isn’t part of following Him learning about people and cultures in order to better understand and in turn enrich our own beliefs?  Didn’t He embrace the tax collector, the sick, the “undesirables”?

Our conversation was rich and deep.  We ran quite a gamut of topics and perspectives.  The person said I am in my job for a reason.  When I shared the story with my boss, she said that I had evoked an emotional response.  She knows I’m a junkie for that.

Right place, right time.