_{When Weird is Wonderful}

As a very visual person, I share this story with some trepidation, fearing that maybe you have a vivid imagination, too. Try not to picture too clearly the scene I lay before you, and we’ll be just fine!

One day, when I was in my second year of college (it’s hard to believe that was over two decades ago now), I decided to pass some free time by heading over to the mall across the street from my university. The very first store I entered was playing a song that I loved from my childhood and hadn’t heard for many years called “Ease on Down the Road.”

This was in an era before you could look up a song on your cell phone (I actually didn’t even have a cell phone), YouTube, Spotify, or any other instant gratification device or app. When your jam came on, it was special and fleeting, so the moment needed to be savored.

You’ve probably heard of the movie The Wizard of Oz, but you may not have heard of its soul-sister, The Wiz. It’s a 1978 adaptation of the original, and the setting is modernized to fit the time of its release.

In this version, Dorothy, played by Diana Ross, is a Harlem schoolteacher instead of Kansas farm kid. Michael Jackson, who was around twenty years old at the time, plays the Scarecrow. “Ease on Down the Road” is their duet: an upbeat, soulful, funky replacement for “Follow the Yellow Brick Road.”

I was raised on gospel music, so I hear that kind of groove and have a semi-involuntary reaction. The music moves me! Plus, the lyrics (that I’m apparently not legally allowed to type on this blog according to my very quick google search on copyright infringement laws) are so uplifting!

Remember now, I’m in a store. I should care about that, right? I should be mindful of the fact that if I start singing and busting a move right there in a department store, people will think I’m weird, right?

Those thoughts don’t get very far with me, especially in this case, because hearing that song was such a rare treat. The urge to have fun and be free overruled embarrassment.

Not only did I find myself singing and dancing in that store (not loudly or overtly as to draw attention— just enthusiastically enough to satisfy my whim), but I couldn’t get the song out of my head as I wandered through the mall. Everywhere I went, I carried the tune with me, even as I headed through the food court and toward the restroom.

This is the part where I’d appreciate you NOT visualizing everything I’m writing. Thanks in advance.

I was still merrily singing as I pushed open the restroom door. That’s when it occurred to me that a bathroom is a confined space and people would definitely notice that I was singing. I could get away with my weirdness to some extent in a bustling mall, but a public bathroom was a different story.

That logical thought didn’t have time to take root, though, because as soon as I entered, I noticed the amazing acoustics in there! Everyone knows bathrooms are the best for singing, so why would I want to stop now?!

Sure, I would shut up immediately if someone asked me to pipe down. I wasn’t trying to be obnoxious. I was just really delighted by that song and having fun!

This is one of those times in life that I’m retrospectively so grateful that societal norms and a healthy fear of embarrassment escaped me.

Singing away in my stall, I suddenly heard another voice join in! She was in the stall next to me. We started harmonizing! Our voices reverberated off the restroom walls as we belted out our little impromptu duet. I’d found the Dorothy to my Scarecrow!

We started to laugh, and when I met her by the sink to wash our hands, she had this expression on her face that surprised me. It wasn’t a silly, happy, “Hey-we’re-two-strangers-singing-The Wiz-in-a-public-restroom” look. It was deeper than that, and I couldn’t quite understand it until we started to talk.

She appeared to be in her late twenties. (I was still a teen, so she seemed old to me!) She said that she used to sing but hadn’t in a long time. She felt like her pipes were pretty rusty, but she remembered in that moment just how much joy singing brought her. I could see that joy all over her!

We continued chatting as we headed back out into the mall. A friend of hers was waiting for her in the food court, and my newfound potty pal (whose name I wish I could remember) immediately shouted, “Listen to this!”

We sang our little harmonized chorus together and her friend looked bewildered. I don’t think she loved being serenaded in a mall food court. Go figure!

My bathroom bud also knew a few people that worked at the mall, so they got an unsolicited earful as well. I can’t say that embarrassment wasn’t starting to creep in at this point, but I was already in too deep. I just went with it!

After making the rounds, sharing our soulful tune with people much less enthusiastic about our duet than we were, she asked me if I sang anywhere locally (ya know, like, other than in mall bathrooms or food courts). That’s when church came up. To my surprise, her eyes filled with tears.

She said she’d gone to church when she was younger, but things had gotten in the way, and she felt like she’d wandered off of the path she wanted to take. She sensed our meeting wasn’t a mistake and that God was speaking to her about what had been missing from her life.

As I listened to her story, my heart was overwhelmed with joy. God loved this sweet woman so much that He sought her out in such an unconventional and unique way! Apparently, it was just the way she needed.

I don’t know where her life went after that night. I know we chatted about getting together, but our lives only crossed paths that once, and I’m so grateful that I got to “Ease on Down the Road” with that lovely soul for a short while. It remains a treasured encounter that I will never forget—a time when God surprised me and (a singing stranger) with His presence and unexpected joy.

His presence knows no bounds!

Where has God surprised you with a sudden awareness of His presence and filled you with joy? I want to hear about it!