I’m from India. Where’s my luggage?

“I’m from India. Where’s my luggage?” A lost, somewhat distraught traveler asked me this during one of my shifts at the Málaga airport a number of years ago. I don’t remember being very gracious as I impatiently pointed out that I wasn’t an information desk. I was there to rent out cars, so if he had any unrelated questions, he should go to the information desk right next door. (I didn’t say this in so many words, but I’m sure my sentiment was reflected in my tone.) I hated life at that point and I was fed up with frazzled travelers asking me questions that had nothing to do with why I was there.

Anyways. 

What recalls this particular memory is the fact that his question has kind of become my go-to example of the general disorientation and bewilderment that I myself often feel. Not so much in the sense that I’ve just arrived and don’t know where my luggage is, but in the broader sense of I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m not sure how I got here. 

I don’t say this in a negative sense. Actually, finding myself in situations I have no business being in has kind of become my thing. I feel so unqualified doing the things I’m doing, but I have the most awesome time doing them. From the outside it may look like I stumble indiscriminately into things, but really it’s a series of seemingly random connections that end up not being random at all but divinely orchestrated. I can’t explain how I got here or what the heck I’m doing. But I’m having a marvelous time. And I can’t take credit for any of it. I’m just busy living in the favor of God. 

Favor. Tremendous, unexplainable favor. (By the way, I just recently discovered that my name means favor and grace. No joke. Google it.) 

I’ll give you the short version of what I mean: Nearly three years ago, an acquaintance of mine in Málaga suggested I attend a conference for Christian business leaders to be held in Berlin. At that time I was busy not being a business leader - I was a teacher. But for some reason, he felt I should attend. So I did. I happened to be on winter break that week, so why not? It turned out to be one of the best weeks of my life. Hands down. I had no business being there, but I was absolutely in the right place. (For the full story, see previous blog post: http://annikagreco.blogspot.se/2013/02/some-personality-types-are-just-meant_20.html) 

At this conference I met a German man who worked in leadership development. For whatever reason, he saw potential in me and has since kept in touch sporadically. A year ago he emailed me just to ask how I was doing, and I told him I had recently started grad school, was looking for internship opportunities and did he have any contacts or ideas? He in fact did. He recommended me to one of the executive leaders of World Evangelical Alliance, and this exec, without knowing anything about me other than what he’d heard from my German friend, contacted me and shortly thereafter sent my inquiry to WEA’s New York office. Which is where I spent 10 fantastic weeks this fall (see previous posts “Little girl, big city”).

While at the WEA’s NYC office, I met another member of the leadership team who took an interest in what I wanted to write my master’s thesis on. He said he knew a few people who could lend me insight on the subject matter and that they would all be gathered at a global youth leaders’ conference in Rome in December. He would try to get me in. 

And now I’ve just returned from this conference with my head full of ideas and heart full of hard-to-verbalize emotions. Aside from the fact that I got to sit down and converse with some wonderful African thinkers and doers (my primary reason for going), I got to meet people who are doing some incredible work in Syria and Lebanon in the midst of war and crisis. I feel so inspired I hardly know what to do with myself.  

And this is the craziest part: Back in October, I was gripped with the idea that I wanted to go to the Middle East to see for myself what is happening there. I of course know no one in the region, have nothing to contribute really, I don’t speak Arabic and would probably feel pretty clumsy and disoriented in general (that would really be an I’m-from-India-where’s-my-luggage scenario). But I told God that I wanted to do this and that He would have to connect the dots because I certainly had no clue how to go about it. Guess who I meet at this conference? The national director of a global ministry in Lebanon who, along with his team, is doing a lot of work in the Syrian refugee camps. He told me that the outside world is not getting the accurate story of what is happening in the region and could I come visit them and tell their story? 

Mind blown. Again, I had no business being at this conference - I'm not a youth leader - but I was absolutely in the right place. 

In short, I have no idea what I’m doing or how I got here, and even though this is unsettling for a control freak like me, I’m starting to think I’d never want to live any other way. Not knowing where my luggage is is turning out to be pretty freakin’ sweet.