The FOURTH Sunday in Epiphany
by Will McLaughlin
The other day, I was on a walk at an odd time of day for me. It was 7:30pm and instead of putting my kids to bed, I was walking around my “borey,” or neighborhood, praying and listening. Truth be told, I was actually blowing off steam from a stressful day. I had been trying to find a projector for my church—of all things—and the constant details and back-and-forth texting had really gotten to me. But, I didn’t move to Cambodia to shop for projectors! I wanted to see God’s Kingdom coming to the nations! So, in the moment, I was asking for God to give me an Epiphany. I was asking him to show me how he was at work, even in the nitty gritty details. Becky, my wife, had noticed how stressed I was and she encouraged me to take a walk and pray while she put the kids to bed. What a saint!
It was at that exact moment, during my tense, oddly timed walk that I ran into a neighbor that I hadn’t seen in over a year. Initially, we had met back in 2024 in an even stranger way, which I’ll have to share sometime. (It involved a near collision, me yelling, an argument, a subsequent apology from me, and a conversation about Jesus!)
Anyway, it had been a year since we had spoken. And, to be honest, I had been feeling bad about it. Last time we spoke, it was about Jesus and he didn’t believe yet, but seemed curious. However, things got busy and I had failed to make time to follow up with him.
He and his wife were on a walk together and when he saw me, he gave me a big wave and said, “Hello, Will! We were just talking about Jesus!” “You were?" I asked. "How? Why?” I was immediately surprised, yet certain that God had converged our paths for this conversation.
He told me a story. He had just gotten back from Vietnam for a medical trip. During his stay, he decided to do a bit of sight seeing and visited a church “to admire the architecture.” Once inside, he saw what he described as “fourteen statues of Jesus, telling the story of how he went to die.” I realized he was talking about “Stations of the Cross," the church tradition of meditating on different events in the life of Jesus as he journeyed to the cross.
I asked him if he believed it was true and he responded with a grave look on his face, “I don’t know what it means for me, but I am certain that Jesus was a very brave man. And he suffered in a way that no other person has.” God had revealed something deep and true about himself through a chance encounter with this timeless tradition. God wasn’t disappointed in me for my failure to follow up. Rather, he was giving me another chance to see The Spirit at work.
What had started as an angry walk regarding a projector had ended in a profound conversation about, "The Bravest Man who ever lived". God had indeed answered my prayers for an Epiphany. He had revealed to me that he was the one at work. Even in the midst of the details. Even when I fail to follow up with a neighbor. God is drawing people to himself. And he has graciously given me a chance to watch him at work.
Please keep us in prayer as we prepare for Lent and Holy Week afterwards. (You better believe that we’ll do Stations of the Cross!) Pray that the Lord lifts our gaze to see him at work.
Will McLaughlin is an ordained priest in the Diocese of Christ our Hope and serving as a church planter in Phnom Penh, Cambodia with his wife and 4 kids. They are currently in the process of building a church for their multilingual church plant.