Full Circle Moments

I think part of what it means to be human is sharing in moments where you feel your life has come "full circle." Times when past events line up in such a way where everything feels interconnected and something about life is more meaningful than it once seemed.

And I seem to be having my share of them lately. Here are two examples:

First Baptist Church: Nashville, TN

My grandparents were life-long members here. They were the kind of superstar laity that any pastor dreams of having in their congregation. My mother attended this church for the first 23 years of her life. She and my dad where married here 30 years ago. I attended church here regularly as a child when I visited my grandparents. I sat in the sanctuary the spring of 1997 for my grandfather, Dr. George Duncan's funeral. I then sat in the sanctuary for another funeral, this time for my grandmother in the spring of 2003.

Then, two weeks ago I sat in the sanctuary as a participant in the Homiletics Festival as Rev. Evans. The significance of the moment overwhelming as these memories flooded my consciousness. I thought of what a place of faith this building had been for my family. I remembered of what it felt like to attend my grandparents' funerals. And I thought of what my grandparents would have thought of my place in life now, serving as a pastor at another FBC in Maryland.

I couldn't help but tear up a little as we sang songs of faith in the building or when a dear friend of my grandmother's, Ann, who was working the registration for the conference, and I met. After asking me some of the basic "how are you questions?" she told me how proud my "Gran" would have been of me. She sadly mentioned how much she missed my grandparents. We shared a moment of shared memory.

The circle somehow felt complete.

Intern Pick-up Day at Calvary Baptist Church in DC

In May of 2005, I awaited for the arrival of several college interns with the current director of youth and outreach at Calvary Baptist Church. It was in the first week of my pastoral internship at Calvary. I was a bright-eyed, eager seminary student so excited to have found a Baptist church as a home for the summer. The college interns seemed so young to me though, but I was happy for their arrival because now I had a multitude of students for the young adult Sunday School class I would be leading over the summer.

One of the students in my Sunday School class that summer will become my husband on October 27th (not one of the college interns, I want to point out, but a young professional in the city named Kevin).

Now, one of the 2007 summer interns at Calvary is my sister, Emily. I picked her up from the airport on Friday to spend some time with her before her summer of work at Camp Frasier (a ministry of Calvary Baptist) began. As I helped her carry her bags and showed her around the church building while we were waiting for her teammates to arrive, I saw in her the same passion I saw two years ago in the interns. I also saw the same bright-eyes I had myself when I first came to Washington. She wanted to take pictures of everything (including the welcome to DC signs). She excitedly told me of her desire to see all the monuments and museums. She couldn't wait to start calling the subway the "Metro" as all of us know it as.

Then, on Sunday, Kevin and Emily sat in the Young Adults Sunday School room together. Kevin introduced himself as the one who was marrying Emily's sister.

The webs of my life in DC continue to be more tangled up together. I am reminded with each new connection created, my life is here now. DC is my home. I am very grateful for how good life's Providence has been to me.

The circle feels more complete, even though I know there are always more circles to come!