Desperado

In 1992, I decided to visit a Unity Church. I was wary. I hadn’t been to church except for weddings and funerals since I was in college. A friend had convinced me to take a prosperity workshop at the church. Unfortunately, or so I thought at the time, the workshop required church attendance for the 12 week duration

My early experiences had turned me off of church. It wasn’t relevant, it was too serious, and there was too much emphasis on sin and blame. But here I was, about to walk into a church. Well, I told myself, if it’s really bad, I could leave.

I was ten minutes early. No use hanging around outside, might as well go in and get a feel of the place. I walked across the threshold. Someone was playing the piano. Not the expected hymn or even a classical piece. This guy was playing “Desperado,” by the Eagles. I was stunned. And thrown back into the 70s with all my mixed feelings of joy and sadness, love, loss and longing.

My heart opened. All the stories I had told myself about how church didn’t have anything for me fell away.

That song, in that moment, heralded the start of a new life for me.

In part, it was centered around one line from the song: “You better let somebody love you before it’s too late.” Let God love me? Let me love myself? Let me feel worthy of being loved?

My point is this: you never know what will break someone’s heart open. You just never know. It my case, it was a song from my past. For someone else, it might be sunlight coming through a stained glass window, or you, the minister, telling a story from your childhood. You can’t make it happen, but you can leave little crumbs along the trail. You never know.