A Season Of The Espresso Machine by Elizabeth Williamson
“So what’s the fellows program?”
Well let’s see, do you have about ten minutes to spare while I jump from one explanation to the next and at the end of our conversation rather than feeling enlightened, you most likely feel further confused?
Awesome!
I felt this for about 4 months leading up to my journey from Texas to Nashville, as well as in moments during the past two months of officially being a “Nashville Fellow”.
Some people comprehend the program after hearing the details and other times they know what it is without a need for explanation, but more often a blank stare is the common response I receive, which I completely understand. Heck, half the time I have no clue how to describe the fact that I went from living with five of my best friends from college to moving into the home of empty nesters who welcomed me with open arms even though we had never met. Makes sense! Now I find myself in a city I have never lived with a couple I am still getting to know, but there is an immediate upside. They happen to have an incredible espresso machine .
But since I’ve been here, every preconceived notion one might have about this program or questioning the significance of this year has been completely shattered.
More often than not the enigma that this program presents has actually mirrored many circumstances the Lord places in our lives. Moments we cannot explain or relate to through words but rather experience.
Sometimes we are pushed from a stagnant and complacent season of life with an inexplicable calling into an unfamiliar community. And this leap of faith has been the most crucial in my life thus far. I’ve seen what it looks like to move somewhere completely alone and on your own.
To be welcomed by strangers with open arms
Two host parents who go above and beyond to make me feel like their own daughter
I’ve experienced inclusivity with no expectation
An Auburn football game…. War Eagle
What it looks like to be generous in both materialistic and non-materialistic ways
The need to study what we believe- and never cease
Intergenerational friendship
What it feels like when your car stalls in the middle of an intersection
Uncertainty in being young
Uncertainty in being old
A life without Tex-Mex
Differing opinions meeting on middle ground
Happiness is a 9pm bedtime in the work world
The most unlikely pairings of friendship
Satisfaction in the unknown
The struggle of keeping in touch with those you love
The balance in new & old friends
Sixteen twenty-two year olds with varying backgrounds living in Christian community with one another
And a 20 something year-old girl finding her place within a new city & state, which she now calls her own.
There has been good and bad, but even the bad has had pieces of good. Often, seasons of our lives don’t make sense and sometimes the Lord calls us into a community with no explanation. And it may take us ten minutes to explain this, or in other instances ten years to a lifetime. But the Lord’s purpose remains constant.
I am confident more than ever that there is more significance in a challenge than in an easy reach and that one day, just maybe, I will buy an espresso machine of my own.