I was honored to contribute as a guest blogger for Remind me....What was I talking about...? by Missy Whitis. You’ll find her most amazing blog here.
India has never been on my places-I-hope-I-get-to-go list. I’ve always been more of a beach girl with a secret longing to live in sunny Italy. So when my friend Karen first mentioned the possibility of a trip to India together, I laughed. It seemed like an impossibility. India was too far, too costly, too much. Who wants to spend that much time on a plane anyway?
I should know by now that the best adventures in my life have been invitations to go places that weren’t on my places-I-hope-I-get-to-go list. Invitations to do things I thought were far beyond me. In places like Soweto and Soshungave, South Africa, I’ve left part of myself and found part of myself. These places have changed me.
Still, maybe no one was more surprised than me to find myself on a plane to Mumbai with Karen. She’d invited me to experience this place she loves and visits every year. To stay with her friends. And to do a little teaching there as well. I was completely overwhelmed by the sites, sounds, smells, traffic of India (oh my gosh, the traffic). I felt lost in a very big place. And in that lostness I found connection with people so very different from me and so very much the same.
As I shared meals with Karen’s friends, they quickly became my friends. We shared our hearts, our lives, our experiences. We shared delicious food and wine. And we found we had so much more in common than I’d thought.
I think that maybe Jesus knew, if we’d just break some bread together, have a little wine, and share our stories, the distance between us, all the things that divide, would begin to shrink. That we’d discover our shared humanity and fall a little in love with one another. Not in a mushy Hallmark movie kind of way. But in a heart to heart, connected kind of way that would bind us together in love. Maybe this is the point of communion, a union shared in Christ, in love, that spans continents and political parties and our deep desire to be right about pretty much everything we believe.
The space we share together in love, in God, this is transformative space. Living connected, rooted in love, face to face, heart to heart—in this kind of space our hearts, our relationships, our communities begin to find the way back to the connection we all seek. And maybe, just maybe, it all begins at a table with a simple meal.
I should have known I’d leave part of myself in India with these people. And I should have known I’d carry them home in my heart. But somehow I didn’t. And it’s been the best surprise. Now this place that felt so far away is only a heartbeat away. And I’m forever grateful for the gift.