Sometimes awesome happens in the hallway.
Today for instance. I was at the church office for a quick meeting. On my way out, I met someone coming in. We stopped for a minute to say hi. And awesome happened.
We know each other through worship arts but had never engaged in actual conversation. Not in depth anyway. But there we were, dumping out our emotional baggage in the middle of the hallway and happily digging through it. We discovered that we share common struggles, common fears, and a common desire to learn from it all in order to impact others who are struggling.
This encounter made me think of other incidents of hallway awesomeness.
Playing milk the cows in the upstairs hallway when I was little. Hey-we were dairy farm kids. You play what you know. It was fun until someone’s head got stuck between the stair banisters.
Whispering secrets in the hallway at school. Praying with friends in the hallway outside our dorm rooms at college. Waiting in the hallway outside my baby’s room for her to stop crying and go to sleep. Hugging my niece in the hallway before she enters the auditorium for her high school graduation. Moments of awesome.
Today my friend and I talked about mental health. Parenting. Marriage. She shared books with me that have helped her. I shared how God recently drop-kicked me into my calling. How scary is hard and hard is good. Hard forces us to rely on God. And how our choices today have generational impact. You know -the basic hallway chat in passing kind of stuff.
Not once did we remark on the weather. That makes me happy. Weather is usually boring. Broken brains, broken feelings, being a broken parent and doing our best every day anyway, now that’s the good stuff.
Next time you pass someone in the hallway and say “Hey! How’s it going?”, stick around for a minute to hear the answer. You might find awesome happening in a hallway near you.
