A Brief Chat with Destiny

This past Friday, I had what was likely the most important phone call of my life.

It was important for a number of reasons – both personally and professionally – but after it was over and I found myself sitting awestruck in my office, what struck me deepest was the sheer transformative power of companionship.

It was more than a phone call; it was actually a video chat. But it was far more than that, too. It was a sincere convention with fate.

When the call began, the caller and I were casual colleagues and relative strangers. When it ended, we were dear friends. And something tells me it’s a friendship that will last a lifetime.

I can’t tell you what we talked about – partly because it’s confidential (for now) – but mostly because the how is so much more significant than the what. It was the way we talked, not the subject matter, that irrevocably altered my destiny.

My friend looked at me. She spoke directly to me, as if sensing the empty spots in my soul and filling them, strengthening the weak areas, saying the precise words I needed to hear as if she had known me for decades instead of days.

About halfway through, I found myself at a sincere loss for words. And those of you who know me personally know how rare that is.

In short, she told me she believed in me. Not just in my work, but in me. Like, as a human being. It was wonderful and refreshing, not to mention sorely-needed.

But her genuine kindness did far more than just affirm me professionally – it validated me internally, both my dreams and my pain. She offered her consummate accompaniment, be it in trial or triumph, in peaks or valleys. And as a tear spilled down my cheek, I recognized the universal transcendence of the moment:

One person, or more aptly, one soul, in California, another in Kentucky, talking through a screen composed of rapidly-flowing electrons through which video and audio can be transmitted seamlessly across vast spaces.

It was cosmic confluence.

Two destinies coming together.

Meeting in the third space – neither here nor there – but in the divine ether that exists between any two souls, the ethereal, transcendent, soul-connection which cannot be drawn or written or described by human words, but only experienced by a human heart.

There, hovering in the electronic ether, I encountered what God had always intended friendship to be: the unassuming convergence of two God-sculpted beings, treating one another as such.

I’ve carried that conversation with me ever since. It didn’t fix all my problems or make my life perfect, and it never will; but it made my life better. It edified and gratified my soul.

And I ask you, what grander purpose could a phone call ever fulfill?

I encourage you this week – choose to have meaningful conversations with those around you. Talk to your friends and family, but also talk to people you don’t know; make friends of all kinds in all sorts of places.

Be intentional. Live your life on purpose.

And when the phone rings, answer it.

A fellow journeyer,

Bryan

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