The Rabbit Hole
There’s this thing -actually more it’s like a phenomenon that happens when you choose to hang out with your majority friends in this country. My roommate calls it “going down the rabbit hole”, and it basically means whatever you envisioned would happen when you agreed to hang out with your friend will undoubtedly turn into something you couldn’t have imagined even if you had wanted to. Last night, a friend named Moe that I hadn’t seen since he travelled at the beginning of the summer invited me to drink tea; instead, we fell down a rabbit hole.
Before commencing our unrealized tea drinking we had to buy phone credits and deliver them to Moe’s friend at a fancy hotel in another part of town. I’ve become used to these non-mentioned hiccups when meeting up with people from this culture, so I submitted to come along. We arrived at the hotel, only it was more like a 21st century castle. Inside the castle Moe spots a group of people from his home country sitting in a circle on the patio and says we must go say hello. Like usual, I comply. Before I know it, I’m ushered into a gathering of Arabs from across the globe and striking up conversation with a Saudi man recounting his adventures on the American west coast. The circle appears to be growing by the minute, and before we could even pretend to protest Moe and I are ushered upstairs, past golden painted doors, red carpets, and finally into a dining room that suddenly made me conscious of every ounce of dust caked to my shoes.
It turns out we had crashed one heck of a party, by incidentally becoming guests of one of the most wealthy Sheikhs (religious leaders) from Moe’s home country, and this was his annual meeting where he gathered his students from across the globe to check in on each other and offer support.
So here I was, the only foreigner and believer in the middle of the rabbit hole simply praying: “God, what an opportunity. Do what you want.”
The night featured meeting tons of new people, exchanging contacts, and sitting next to one particularly bright student talking about our faiths. He started the conversation like many do, “You know, the differences between us are simple.” And before I could stop myself I said, “Yes, but they’re important.” He smiled. And from there I could easily talk about our Shepherd, who he is, our differences, and answer some really cool questions from this guy.
You never know where the rabbit hole leads, but even more so you never know what will come of it. That’s the cool thing about just following the road that God paves. I didn’t design it in the first place, so I don’t even have to know what will come of it. He does what He wants, but sometimes it sure is fun to be a part of it.