Being Catechized.

Airports and Flights are such unique experiences. Most people are a bit anxious, they are going or coming… most breaking their everyday routine from a vast array of reasons. We get herded into a narrow cylinder and assigned seats… Window, Aisle, in the middle… sometimes by family and friends, and sometimes by complete strangers. I know, I know… nothing new. Most have experienced the excitement, the anxiety, the frustration and the expectation of flying. Within a few hours, all your senses will soak in a different place… and not just location wise but a different place to see and experience who you are.

The last two times I have returned to Minnesota to visit home, the in-between has been eventful. When I returned for Christmas I was seated in a row with an Amish man from out west who talked about his call and his family’s call to leave their home and move out west to fight the spiritual fight for God. He cried as he talked about his faith and what God was calling him to do. Plainly dressed in jean slacks and jacket, straw hat in hand, he his simultaneously fear of leaving and faith that he would be well were apparent. We both shared our confession and blessed the other as we landed and went our way.

Today as I was leaving Guatemala City, I ended up in a seat next to Jeff-- a 47 year old free spirit from Ann Arbor, Michigan who was returning to the States after 2 months in Guatemala. He immediately wanted to know what a Lutheran was and then we went on to talk about faith and life. He, like many, has a strong institutional and organizational distrust. While he grew up Christian Science, which might explain some of his ideas whether or not he will claim them or not, for him the church was an organization like any other that he did not need because he could decide how to live his life and make good decisions on his own. He liked the idea of saint and sinner, and grace got his attention. He is going to tell his mother who lives in Washington near Silverdale to attend Silverdale Lutheran Church when I am there in two weekends.

So time in transit… conversations to be had, not all comfortable but usually interesting (in the Minnesota use of the word). I enjoyed my trips to Minnesota and while I arrived weary from a long day of travel, I arrived having met a few more people who I had spent some time with… tray tables in the upright position in the long cylinder with wings.