The Road to Nowhere?

Tampa-airport-parking-mapI arrived in Tampa yesterday for the start of the United Methodist General Conference–our quadrennial gathering of UM clergy and lay delegates from around the world who meet to set policy and the direction of the church for the next four years (at least). I am here in two roles: first as an elected reserve delegate and second as a communicator for the Rocky Mountain Conference. My job is to blog and Tweet and Facebook back to the Conference on what's happening here. In that role, I am to be a dispassionate reporter of what is seen and heard. But here, on the Bob Kaylor blog, it's all about personal observation–unfiltered, reactionary, and usually not thought through thoroughly (say that three times fast) before it gets published. Let the reader beware. 

Anyway, I arrived yesterday on a pleasant flight from Denver on Southwest (yes, it's worth the extra $10 to insure an aisle seat). Arriving at the Tampa airport, I called for the shuttle and was told, "It's right outside, all ready to go." Well, the promise proved to be more of a premise. Some colleagues and I actually waited for about 30 minutes until the right shuttle showed up. We climbed aboard for the trip to the hotel. What we didn't know, however, was that we were about to enter a kind of passenger purgatory as the shuttle circled the airport four times, each time returning right back to where we started. It was another 30 minutes before we actually left the airport. The Talking Heads song "Road to Nowhere" was running loops in my head. 

As we rode back and forth across the scenic Tampa airport (scenic, if palm trees and pavement are your thing), I began to muse that this could easily be a metaphor for what is about to happen here over the next 11 days or so. We have all arrived from around the world, we're all beginning a journey together, but there will be times where it seems like all we're doing is circling the issues and continually returning back to the place we started. All the legislation, proposals, and studies; all the wrangling and debating and kvetching may swell into one long chorus of the road to nowhere. We were joking about it on the shuttle, which was filled with delegates–the gallows humor of those who have been down this road many times before. 

But, then again, it's the first day and just like the beginning of baseball season, everyone here thinks that there's a chance–even a small chance–that something great will happen here. I'm hopeful that it will, but I tend to be pessimistic sometimes (you know the definition of a pessimist–it's an optimist with experience). I hope I can push that aside as the conference opens with worship in a little over an hour. Worship may be the one thing that we all want to do well, and it may very well be the only way we're ever going to stop circling and start moving forward. Even in the midst of a mammoth convention center filled with all the trappings of corporate culture, God can show up and great things can be done. 

I'm hoping that at the end of this General Conference, when it's time to head to the airport,  the shuttle runs straight. I'm hoping that during the Conference, the Spirit leads us that way, too. 

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