My Christmas Bonus

There's a joke told among clergy that goes something like, "Pastors may work long hours, but the retirement plan is out of this world." While that smacks of bad theology, it is true that some of the greatest rewards I receive from my job are not found in my paycheck. Like the Christmas card I received last week.

Several months ago I was sitting at my computer on a Monday morning, just trying to get the sleep out of my eyes and figure out my plan for the week, when the secretary buzzed on the intercom to tell me I had a call on line one. The woman on the line was crying so hard the secretary couldn't catch her name. I took a deep breath, wondering what crisis had just wandered into my rapidly filling day. I answered line one and sure enough, the young woman on the other end was crying. She told me her name and was able to say only that she really needed to talk to a pastor. She had been at Calvary only a couple of times, Christmas and Easter, but she knew she had to talk to me. Another deep breath, a glance at my calendar. "Can you come in at 11?" I asked. "I'll be there," she replied.

At 11:00 a young woman I had never seen before walked into my office. I will not tell her story here, or all that happened over the next hour and half we were together. Suffice it to say she was struggling with some serious issues, including something she had done for which she was profoundly sorry. She also was going through transition; the next day she was moving out west with her daughter to start a masters' degree. We prayed together. I wished her well. She hugged me. And that was the last time I saw her.

I've thought about her several times since then, wondering if she ever got to school, what sorts of decisions she was making, how her life was going. But, I know that people often walk into my office and then walk out again forever. So, imagine my surprise last week as I was sorting through the usual junk mail and there was an envelope from an unfamiliar address. Inside was a Christmas card with a picture of this young woman and her little daughter. On the back she had written a note, telling me where she was and how things were going, and asking after me and some things that I had shared with her. But what struck me was the very first thing she wrote, "Thank you for saving my life." Thank you for saving my life. As I read that I said a prayer of thanks for her -- thanks that she was well, thanks that she had thought to contact me, thanks that God had put us in each other's path, thanks that in the deep breaths I had taken that day the Holy Spirit had entered in and worked Her wonders.

The Christmas card is on my bulletin board at church as a reminder of why I do what I do, a reminder never to be too busy to take the unexpected call. You never know what sort of a difference it might make.

Incidentally, yesterday's unexpected event was two strangers walking into the church with a marriage license asking if I would marry them. I didn't. But you never know what a day will bring!