the walk
last thursday i left for the walk to emmaus, and my life was crumbling – two friends are fueding and i am caught in the middle. an email had been sent and i had been cc’d. the recipient called me angry and gave me her version of what happened. how could anyone be so misunderstood? another issue – my friend in the flat below me called and said there was water leaking from the roof of her laundry room…was our washer leaking? four government inspectors checked. my morning was frantic. i was trying to get hold of a girlfriend in canada and having no success.
in no way was i prepared for the walk to emmaus.
non happy clappers will wonder if the walk to emmaus is one of the gorgeous hiking paths around hong kong. it’s not…the walk to emmaus appears in the new testament. emmaus is a city, and it was while walking to emmaus a few days after the crucifiction, that cleopas encountered a fellow walker. only after chatting for a while, did cleopas realise that man was Jesus.
twice a year, i try to walk away from my life and have Jesus reveal himself to me again, each time in different ways. the walk to emmaus is a non denominational spiritual retreat.
you can only attend the walk once, subsequent times you are a team member. this time round, i did admin sorts of things, kept us as close to time as possible. for someone AR like me, this was a job i relished. i liked the other things, like room assignments, but seeing if we could keep to schedule…oh the challenge of it all!
of course, i failed miserably. the saturday, we fell over an hour long. and i started panicking, said some wrong things. how could anyone be so misunderstood? i felt like my weekend was ruined, like i had failed. and then i remembered that earlier that morning in my devotion i had prayed that God give me the strength to follow through on his promise that with him, there are second chances. all i had to do was keep going. and so i did, and it turned out to be a great great weekend.
i came home, and found an email from the triangle friends. on friday, they had gone to lunch. talked it out. reconciled. tomorrow, we will all go to lunch together, to celebrate.
second chances. the courage to follow through. forgiveness. grace. thank you.
