Today I meant to meet up with some people at the place I work, but I happened to have arrive when the people I intended to meet with were out.
I had my camera on me because I was out and camera-in-hand-itis is what I am afflicted with and there's no cure!
Anyway, I walked out and a guy who was eating lunch at the local church (where they serve a free meal on Thursdays) asked me you're not going to take my photo, are you? I said to him, no sir, not if you don't want to, I myself photograph so I don't have to be photographed.
He smiled at that and he and I started talking. Now this happens a great deal and I earnestly think God flicks off my fear switch and I approach people, face-to-face, eye-to-eye, and just talk and listen where needed be.
Jim* starts talking to me about life and what's going on in his life, he also starts cracking jokes about the other people gathered, some in fun but also some of what they're addicted to. I start talking soccer with Jim and I share how much a mutual friend of ours loves his country's soccer team to the point that I had a verbal argument about soccer in church! He shared how that's how some people are, him being half Brazilian, he knows and I know! Brazilian soccer is pretty kick ass, plus they had Pele...back to my story.
Jim starts asking about my vocation, I share how I am a senior in the field of Psychology, he starts asking what I plan to do when I am done with my degree, I share I really don’t know and he starts giving advice to which the best part of what he shared was to not be intimidated by people who might have gone to a more prodigious school than I have, paper is paper, show them what you have to offer. I share with Jim how I find that my calling is Youth Ministry, he perks up on that and asks if he can give me a “three second interview” pertaining to Youth Ministry, the “why should we hire you” and related. At the end of all this he shakes my hand and wishes me a good day, I ask him as he rises “Jim, how can I pray for you?”
Jim sits back down, he’s more quiet and reserved now, he responds in close to a whisper; my addiction is alcohol, I listen and he shares with me some of the things he went through; how he was once in school himself, how he majored in Business and Linguistics but he dropped out in his 3rd year. I listen to what he has to say and then he shares how our conversation wasn’t fueled by alcohol, that what he shared with me was real, to which I do believe him when he says it wasn’t the booze talking.
He goes back to being lively and talkative and he gets up again and says Nathanael, I might be an alcoholic but I am a judge of good character, you have it and you have a good heart, you will make it and you will succeed. We shake hands and we part ways.
I smiled as I walk to my car because of God working within me to BE with someone, to listen and talk, to love on the ones the world loves to hate, to take time to make time. I also smiled because a guy who I never met, a guy who dropped out of college, who is addicted to alcohol, who has gone through some rough times – affirmed me in what I find to be my calling, to work with youth and aid to their spiritual development.
I am thankful to God for the many opportunities to go and BE, I enjoy investing my time instead of spending it in the lives of others, including strangers who are aware of their brokeness.
As my friend Justin says; "My worldview includes you." To which I hope I do see the broader picture, to see the other-worldly, to include everyONE in my scope of life and to love on everyone including those that world loves to hate.
[n][v]
*not his real name
I had my camera on me because I was out and camera-in-hand-itis is what I am afflicted with and there's no cure!
Anyway, I walked out and a guy who was eating lunch at the local church (where they serve a free meal on Thursdays) asked me you're not going to take my photo, are you? I said to him, no sir, not if you don't want to, I myself photograph so I don't have to be photographed.
He smiled at that and he and I started talking. Now this happens a great deal and I earnestly think God flicks off my fear switch and I approach people, face-to-face, eye-to-eye, and just talk and listen where needed be.
Jim* starts talking to me about life and what's going on in his life, he also starts cracking jokes about the other people gathered, some in fun but also some of what they're addicted to. I start talking soccer with Jim and I share how much a mutual friend of ours loves his country's soccer team to the point that I had a verbal argument about soccer in church! He shared how that's how some people are, him being half Brazilian, he knows and I know! Brazilian soccer is pretty kick ass, plus they had Pele...back to my story.
Jim starts asking about my vocation, I share how I am a senior in the field of Psychology, he starts asking what I plan to do when I am done with my degree, I share I really don’t know and he starts giving advice to which the best part of what he shared was to not be intimidated by people who might have gone to a more prodigious school than I have, paper is paper, show them what you have to offer. I share with Jim how I find that my calling is Youth Ministry, he perks up on that and asks if he can give me a “three second interview” pertaining to Youth Ministry, the “why should we hire you” and related. At the end of all this he shakes my hand and wishes me a good day, I ask him as he rises “Jim, how can I pray for you?”
Jim sits back down, he’s more quiet and reserved now, he responds in close to a whisper; my addiction is alcohol, I listen and he shares with me some of the things he went through; how he was once in school himself, how he majored in Business and Linguistics but he dropped out in his 3rd year. I listen to what he has to say and then he shares how our conversation wasn’t fueled by alcohol, that what he shared with me was real, to which I do believe him when he says it wasn’t the booze talking.
He goes back to being lively and talkative and he gets up again and says Nathanael, I might be an alcoholic but I am a judge of good character, you have it and you have a good heart, you will make it and you will succeed. We shake hands and we part ways.
I smiled as I walk to my car because of God working within me to BE with someone, to listen and talk, to love on the ones the world loves to hate, to take time to make time. I also smiled because a guy who I never met, a guy who dropped out of college, who is addicted to alcohol, who has gone through some rough times – affirmed me in what I find to be my calling, to work with youth and aid to their spiritual development.
I am thankful to God for the many opportunities to go and BE, I enjoy investing my time instead of spending it in the lives of others, including strangers who are aware of their brokeness.
As my friend Justin says; "My worldview includes you." To which I hope I do see the broader picture, to see the other-worldly, to include everyONE in my scope of life and to love on everyone including those that world loves to hate.
[n][v]
*not his real name
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