All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well. – St Julian of Norwich.

You know that we can drive ourselves sick with worry. In the last few days besides dealing with the sorrow of leaving family and friends, we had become a little more than consumed with the details of the actual trip.

When is the shuttle to Logan coming, will it be on time, is all the luggage under 50 lbs, we have 8 pieces of luggage will customs freak out. We’ll never make it through customs in El Salvador without emptying every tote. What if they confiscate my medicine?????????

Look at the pictures. Self-explanatory right, lots of luggage, us, family and what’s that other thing?

It’s the pants button of a gordo missionario. Well when I was putting on my pants at 2AM, pop goes the button on my pants. For some reason I didn’t completely have a meltdown (such small things can light a fuse in people, especially me when stressed). I just tightened my belt, picked up the button and walked over to Dianne and said, “Maybe this will be the worst thing that happens today and not the proverbial harbinger of what the day will be like, hah, ha we chuckle nervously.  In my head I used St Julian’s quote as a quick prayer to soothe myself.  

Then what transpires in the next 12 hours is one uneventful trip. Not a single problem rears its ugly head. In El Salvador they had me open one tote that was full of tools that probably made the x-ray machine choke. A customs agent looked, asked a couple of questions, smiled and sent us on our way. The Diocesan driver (William) was outside waiting and folks that’s it. Lo siento (Sorry), no lost luggage, no missed connections, no strip searches, interrogations or Locked up Abroad great escapes.

I believe the moral of the story is,  God does directly  intervene in our lives. Did he pop the button, probably not, for those who’ve read the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis; maybe my tempter popped that Button, waiting for my anxiety to boil into anger.  Instead, God calmed me down long enough to joke with my loving wife and then remember St Julian’s prayer so I could then just put my trust in His help. Maybe we pray for forgiveness too much, when we should pray for his help before we lose our cool, forget to trust in Him and do something we need forgiveness for.

I’m not proposing this is easy and I’d like to think I’ll always do that but I know I won’t. It’s just that sometimes his interventions to help us are just as subtle as the tempters attempt to lead us away from Him.

todos deben estar bien, todos deben estar bien, todo tipo de cosas será bien

 

Salud

 

Tom & Dianne Wilson