It had been a day of weather delays. The chances of connecting with a flight from Atlanta to Akron grew dimmer by the hour. Finally the inevitable announcement came: "Due to bad weather, all flights have been canceled; a representative of the airline will assist you with hotel accommodations and rescheduling your flight in the morning." And so a weary group of would-be passengers began the exodus from one end of the Atlanta airport to the other, (it always works that way in an airport, your gate or the place you need to be is always "at the end"). Finally we arrived at the shuttle-post to wait for our ride to the hotel. I assure you, Dale Carnegie was not to be found in our group. But what happened next was extraordinary. The shuttle-driver, realizing our weariness, did everything possible in the next 20 minutes to make our ride as pleasant as possible. 
 
As the shuttle-ride ended, I commended him on a job well done. His response, "We have to serve wherever He puts us."
 
And I thought of good ole John Calvin who 500 years ago broke down the barriers between lay and clergy. We are all called to ministry, he argued, not by any recognition by the church but because of our baptism. Baptism is ordination! Baptism gives us our marching orders to go into the world to serve God and others. Vocation comes from the Latin 'vocre' which means 'to be called' -- baker, banker, broker, whatever -- baptism ordains us all!   
 
...And I was fortunate enough, on an otherwise dreary evening in Atlanta, to meet someone who had been baptized to represent Jesus Christ.