A couple of weeks ago
I was heading home for Norway and my best friends wedding. Yeah, my two best
friends were getting married, and I went on a weekend trip to do my duty as the
best man, to play in the wedding party band, and to celebrate love. That’s a
story on it’s own, but the story I want to share is what happened on my way to
Norway from Atlanta. My trip was scheduled in the middle of the first of two
“snowcapolypses” in Atlanta, now known as “the days Atlanta stood still because
of two inches of snow”. As a Norwegian used to a lot worse weather and a local government
that have more experience with handling it, I found the whole thing quite
fascinating. But when I came to the airport, and had to wait in check-in-lines
and security lines for hours and hours and saw that 80 % of all flights from
ATL were cancelled because of lack of personnel, I saw some of the impact the
weather had. (Not to mention all
the people that was stuck on the interstates, at schools or at work, and all
the people experiencing homelessness that had an even worse week than usual).
But in all this tragic and frustrating context, I experienced love and joy. I
got delayed by a day, but I’m so glad that I got to experience that extra day
(and night) at the airport.
Meet Val, Kevin,
Andrew and Bruce. The three guys were somewhat colleagues travelling back from
a business presentation in Atlanta, while Val also had been in the city with
her job. The 4 of them had met on the way down from Newark to Atlanta, and
waited on the next flight to Newark when I joined them. Kevin was my age,
Andrew and Val in their 40’s and Bruce in his 60’s. They had already waited a
couple of hours when I came. The flight were scheduled to leave before I came
at 1 pm, but ended up being delayed for 20 minutes at a time all through the
evening. But I have to admit; I didn’t think that much about it. My company
welcomed me, asked me about what I was doing and shared what they were doing.
We shared stories, chocolate and laughs. I told them about the tradition around
going skiing with the Norwegian chocolate Kvikk Lunsj, which led to Bruce
getting a whole lot of the similar Kit Kat. I wrote my best man speech and
tried it on them, both in Norwegian (to their great joy) and translated into English.
And especially Bruce told stories. He told us of one time he got promoted to a
director position, which he hadn’t held before. Bruce decided that he needed to
test himself in some way. So he bought a brand new car, an expensive
convertible sports car. He got a friend of him from work to drive him to pick
up the car. When they got there, and Bruce got the keys for the new car, he
gave them to his friend telling her that she could do whatever she wanted to do
with the car for the weekend, and that she just needed to park it at the
company garage when she came home. At this point in the story Bruce explained
to us that his colleague was considered to be a bit crazy. So they both drove
off, Bruce in his old car and his colleague in the new one. The first thing
Bruce saw was his friend driving past him, lowering the roof, and lifting her
hands up in the air. She almost drove into a car in front of her, and took
another exit. Bruce drove home and stayed there for the weekend. Every now and
then he got updates from his friend, like “Hey, now I’m here!”, “Hey, now I’m
there!” and “Hey, I’m at this place, and it’s pouring rain. How did you get the
roof back up again?”. At the end of the weekend he met his colleague and got
his new car back.
Bruce told us that
what he learned from that experience, was that there is no point in worrying
about things that you cannot control. He said that this was a vital lesson for
him to be reminded of when he was about to start in his new position of
leadership, and being in charge of a lot of stuff you easily could worry about.
Bruce told us this story after a couple of hours waiting on our flight, and we
had started to get a little frustrated. For me it changed the rest of my
waiting. I realized that I couldn’t get the plane to the gate any faster by
being stressed out about it. And I was reminded to just enjoy whatever came my
way, and put everything that I couldn’t control in God’s hands.
The whole day, from
early afternoon till late night, and morning for the 3 of us that stayed the
night, were just filled with a lot of great conversations. I got to share a lot
about what I’m learning about God, life and myself this year, and had
conversations about Atlanta, God, trust, poverty and enjoying what you have.
And my companions showered me with generosity. They bought me chocolate, dinner
and hot drinks, they shared wi-fi and chargers. As if being generous with a
young foreign guy where the most natural thing in the world. When we parted, we
agreed to meet again at the same place, getting on the same flight at the same
time next year. And even though I was exhausted when I 24 hours late arrived in
Norway, I felt truly blessed to have met such great companions.
Writing this a couple
of weeks afterwards, it just falls in line with a lot of similar Mission Year
experiences. I have never been shown so much gratitude in so many ways in my
life before. Yes, I have little this year. Yes, I’m getting used to talk to
everyone around me. Yes, I’ve learned to ask more for help from people than
before. But Lord, I have to be honest and say that I never would have thought
that I could meet You in so many different people this year. I’m truly grateful
to live a life where giving and receiving is an everyday thing.
So, dear friends and readers: I encourage you to enjoy the beauty in the unexpected moments!
(If Val, Kevin, Andrew or Bruce are reading this: I hope that you forgive me for whatever artistic freedom or interpretations that you may disagree with. And I truly thank you for our hours together!)
In Christ,
Fredrik
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