Another insightful post by guest blogger, Julie Jones. Julie is a collegue of mine at Christian Associates. She and her husband, Darrin have ministered in Orange County, CA, France and Morroco and currently live in the Bay area. They both are remarkable people.
“God says: my plan is to change you from the inside out, to change your motives – why you do what you do – and to change your impact on people so that how you relate to others will make them thirsty for Me and draw them to dependence on Me.”
Larry Crabb, God’s Love Letters to You
You just never know. You never know who is watching. Recently we went out to dinner with some friends to a fun restaurant that was new to all of us. Our waitress came out to get drink orders and, honestly, she scared me a little. She was a bit rough around the edges but we had good interaction with her and got chatting about her tattoos. Later that week we were in a neighboring city lunching at a deli and were having good conversation with our waiter when we saw our waitress from the previous restaurant! My husband immediately got up to say hello and she was friendly and had remembered us. Our waiter then came over and said he had noticed us talking to the waitress and that she was his daughter! He said how she is new to the wait staff there and that her boss was pleased she was bringing in business! She then came over and chatted for a bit. Our waiter then returned and noticed the Lacrosse jersey our son was wearing from his Christian school. We got talking sports and continued the meal. As we left the deli both father and daughter warmly said goodbye.
As I reflected upon the whole set of events several things struck me:
- First – Kindness always pays. Being friendly to our waitress opened a door, which had blessings in store for all of us.
- Secondly, going out of your way to be friendly opens doors. Had my husband not sought her out we might have missed the whole thing!
- Thirdly, our Christian witness is witnessed by those around us. How we live our lives matters. How we treat wait staff matters. How we treat each other in public places matters. God wants our very being to make others hungry for Him in a parched world.
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
I used to be incredibly outgoing and friendly. Every once in awhile that girl reappears and is usually followed by men (it happens) and new friends. In fact, God used such a time while I was at EWU 4 years ago to lead peeps back to Christ (not my intention: I wanted straight As and ministry in church, He had other plans), which led me to new friends, some of which went to New Com; and it also led to a doctrinal disagreement with my previous pastor over where my priorities lie (church as in within the 4 walls, or discipling at school), which led me to switching churches to New Com. Time and life changes all of us, and though I am less bubbly and abrasive, I miss the outgoing nature and enjoy the fruits of it when it resurfaces. This is a really great blog. How easy it is to fall into our own little worlds, and how much God will do with us if we let Him lead us out. Good blog. 🙂