a meandering quest

I took some time last week to quest with John and Luke for Harry Potter in 67 languages, hidden in the Language Research Centre at uCalgary. To get there we had to journey to the 4th floor of CHD, a building that seemingly ends at the 3rd floor, where, if you dare climb that many stairs, you will be greeted in French by a man whom, if you can speak to him (I can’t, but I was in good company), will point you to the the secret stairs down the hall and through the construction that you must take to the 4th floor. Along the way you will be confronted by the funny but mildly inappropriate jokes of a construction worker, but if you press on, you will find yourself in the eerily deserted lobby of the Language Research Centre, where, under lock and key, are displayed copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in all of its 67 translations.

The odd exploratory walk to pray for uCalgary has become a regular practice for me. It’s good for me to walk halls I don’t typically walk and observe students about their days. I almost always discover something new at the U, and often it is a time of insight and meditation for me that leads to later creativity. It’s good that I can find the value in this, because university ministry might just be one big meander. It would be hard to overestimate the importance of presence in this thing that we do. The number of significant encounters that happen “along the way” when we’re faithful to be present with the students to whom we are sent are too numerous to list.