Angels

Guy knew exactly what he wants to do as soon as he hits college with his crystal clear vision and conviction, wasting no time viciously attacking his classes. When he was finishes with College, graduating in only three years, he rushes on to Seminary which is his next stop on the way to becoming a minister. He's a man in a hurry.

I start College at the same time with no clear idea about anything other than if all my friends were leaving town for higher education than I wasn't about to be left behind.

While Guy's S.A.T. scores far exceeds the minimum standards requirement for acceptance, mine were so low you could use your fingers and toes to count while still being able to pick your nose.

Applying to only one College, the one my best friend Gene will be attending, I'm promptly rejected.

I don't really remember what happens next though my Mother does. Apparently I was so angry and distraught from being turned down entry, I get in the car, drive to the College, find someone to listen and talk my way into enrollment.

As much as I'd love to own that moment, I don't recall it at all, but my Mother believes it and I'm not about to tell her she's wrong.

Several weeks later, Gene and I move into the dorm room we'll share, meet our new best friends and organize an attack on the dormitory down the Hill.

Again I have no recollection of what happens next though Guy clearly remembers.

Apparently I help oversee a re-appropriation of every fire extinguisher available to launch a night time raid on our fellow newly arrived students.

Guy's the resident manager of the targeted dorm and, as such, has responsibility over everyone living in it.

Hearing a loud knocking on his door with yelling up and down the corridor he yanks it open to see what's wrong.

The way he tells it, he sees me pointing the nozzle of a fire extinguisher at his face, scream "BANZAI", spray him in the face and skip down the hall laughing. 

A few days later, classes commence and Guy and I share Dr.  Shriver for history.

"You're the one who sprayed me the other night," Guy says, "with a fire extinguisher and wrecked our dorm."

He's bigger than me, played line on the High School football team and, in those days any way, could appear menacing when he wants.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I reply.

"It was Tuesday night," he snaps, pointing a finger in my face.

"No, it couldn't have been me," I answer. "I was alone in my room studying my Sunday School lesson."

And for the first of many, many times, Guy laughs and forgives me.

We become inseparable.

The following year he becomes the resident manager of the Baptist Student Union on campus so I follow him there and we become the undisputed champions of the card game "Spades."

No one could beat us though everyone tried.

It's because we cheat.

Well, Guy doesn't cheat, he's a man on a mission to give himself to the Church, but I'm not so I cheat for both of us.

In Spades, like Bridge, players bid on how many tricks they expect to win.

Sometime during these days, Guy asks if his girlfriend Anita can stay with me until he finishes class, which is odd because I live in a repossessed trailer I'd bought a few miles off campus.

"Sure," I say because I never tell him no,  so a few days later, I open the door to the dingy trailer and there on the sofa, Bible spread in her lap, sits Anita.

Wearing a blue and white dress, with flowing brown hair cascading her shoulder, bright sunshine flowing through the window illuminating her head with a hallow, she looks very ... "churched."

Before we can talk too much, Guy comes flying in like a bat out of Hell, obviously realizing his momentary lapse of reason, grabs his betrothed  and whisks her away.

They're the perfect couple and, though Nita remains suspicious of me, we hang out a lot until they get married, Guy graduates, moves to Seminary and leaves me behind.

I get on with life, aimlessly making my way through College, enjoying my newborn son, trying to play music in a rock and roll band, giving little thought to the future.

Out of the blue Guy calls to tell me I should come to Seminary.

"Does Nita know you're calling me?" I ask.

Nonetheless, he tells me I'd enjoy it and it'd be good for me.

God's not mentioned, nor is being "called", Church or expressions of faith.

"Just come," he says.

So I do.

Family and friends are shocked but, to this day I'm uncertain as to why, but it was Guy inviting me and I didn't want to say "no" ... couldn't say "no" because somehow, though I have no idea how, it seems the right thing to do.

All Hell breaks loose once I'm there because within weeks I'm the Hippy guitar playing preacher of an inner city Church no one attends, am in the News a lot for being unconventional and unorthodox, find myself in hot water with both the Seminary and the Southern Baptist yet have a front row seat as Holiness hits and I watch the lame walk, the blind see and the dead be raised to life.

My career was born then and, unlike many, I've gotten to have a front row seat twice in life as Holiness hit both in Louisville, Kentucky and Savannah, Georgia.

Who knows?

Maybe I'm watching it again in this little Bar on an island, I've discovered it's hard to really know and appreciate Holiness while it's happening, it's easier to see until afterwards, just like Moses could only see the glory of God after it'd passed his by (Exodus 33:23).

It would never have happened without Guy in my life, calling me out of the blue for whatever reasons he had, with or without Anita's blessings, dragging me out of the bondage of my upbringing to the Promised Land of higher education and vocation.

Quite simply, I'd have never become me were it not for Guy.

We've both rushed through life now, finding ourselves on the downward slide, dealing with health issues, managing age, with not as much to give as we once did though full of wonder at what's next while enjoying everything the "now" while we're still here.

For the first time in almost 15 years we talked the other day, relished a bit in our past, caught up on the kids and made nebulous plans to see each other one last time, if that's what it is.

There's a marvelous passage of Scripture where the old patriarch Jacob dreams he sees "a ladder reaching from the earth to Heaven and upon it Angels were ascending ad descending ..." (Genesis 28:12) ... and while it's terrible exegesis, I love the image, take it to have multiple meanings and apply it those in our lives who bring God to us and take us to God ... hitting us with Holy when we least expect, leaving us different than we would otherwise be and more complete than before.

Guy and Anita are Angels in my life, and though there are many others, they reached out of the ordinary of their own lives into mine and the world changed.

Here's the thing, if you're going to find Angels, you have to know what you're looking for or you'll miss them entirely, mistaking them for celestial beings working magic, coming down from on High, hitting us with lightning bolts of Divine inspiration.

The reality is each of us have it in us to do Holy things just as each of us has the capacity to see it if we know what we're looking for.

God was born into this world, we're taught in the stories of Christmas, and if we believe this then we know God uses the ordinary to convey Holy things ... like calling old friends to extend invitation to break the mold and do something different and utterly unexpected.

Take this moment and look around.

Notice those sitting around you waiting for Holiness to hit them.

Maybe it's you who's meant to get that ball rolling.

It's possible that something you experience today is designed just for you by none other than God.

Angels are ascending and descending constantly, do you see them?