Tuesday, March 25, 2008

A Growing Love.... (Part 2)

Continuing from yesterday's post....

That night, after sitting in that powerful VLI class all day, I actually went out with about 10 of my coworkers to see some other coworkers in a play. I ended up being the driver for about half of us and so we had some great conversation in the car (literally, within five minutes of picking the first person up, she started sharing about some painful issues in her marriage...it was mind-blowing to me to realize how quickly she was opening up. I was able to offer a listening ear, compassion, truth and a little advice. Plus, now I know better how to pray for her and her husband. The Lord wasn't wasting any time!)

Our evening was fun. The play was fantastic and hanging out afterwards was great too. Just building lots of equity with them, having fun with them and seeing more and more ways I can be praying for them....

Then, I ended up going out on St. Patrick's Day with about 10 folks (some different, some the same as the previous outing) and things were again fun. Nothing crazy. Nothing raucous (though I did visit three bars in one night and tasted oysters for the first time - they were unbelievably delicious and fresh even if I'm in a land-locked state! Made me want to go to the beach that very moment!!!). And, by the end I was able to have another great conversation with one of my co-workers...he asked "how church was going?" and I ended up being able to share more about my chruch, who I am and my heart for people. It was cool....though, I've got to start focusing more on speaking about "Jesus" rather than just "my church." That's the next goal...though I'm thrilled with the opportunities I'm getting so far.

Oh! And the other day, I sent an email to one of my co-workers just telling him all the things I see in him - I did it in a very generic way so as to not cause any confusion (to keep him from thinking I was hitting on him or something! :) ) - and it completely rattled him and left him speechless. I can't begin to tell you how glad I was to be able to share truths of who I know him to be with him and also how sad I was that he has never had those things spoken to him before. What in the world? Make no mistake, I'm going to keep speaking like that to him and to the others in my office whenever I get the opportunity.

And, finally, probably the most exciting thing in this whole journey so far is that for Easter, I invited three friends to my house for dinner who don't know Jesus (two co-workers and a friend of one of them) with two friends who do know Jesus. I didn't invite them to church and didn't really say anything specific about what Easter is. I simply invited them to come over for a good, home-cooked meal with some friends on a holiday. Controversial, maybe. Maybe a little too non-descript or indirect. But, simply having a mixing of my worlds together sharing food and building relationship worked well. I did ask Ryan to say a blessing over our food (how could I not, considering Easter represents the biggest event and reason for everything!?) and that was a bit awkward for the others...but I'm not concerned about it. It was so fantastic to have Ryan and Sherry there with me....and we even started telling stories about a mission trip that Ryan and I went on almost EIGHT years ago. Probably a little weird for the others...but again, it's me...all of me...and, while I am being strategic in just how much I share when...I'm also not going to hide things of my life or ways that I choose to live my life. This is just who I am.

What's crazy, is that when everyone left and even the next day at work, the three friends who don't know Jesus just kept thanking me over and over...talking about what a great time it was, etc etc. And, it was genuine...and I know that I'm just living my life out in front of them...(I do LOVE spending time with them and sharing life with them...all my efforts aren't just to "get them saved" but really to just live life with them and love them for who they are...but I DO believe that they need Jesus in their lives)...and I'm choosing to believe that the reason they were all so gripped by how great our time together was on Sunday has less to do with the food and company and much more to do with the Holy Spirit...that He is drawing them and building something in them that they aren't yet aware they need. I think that's what was going on on Sunday...so, I'm just choosing to pray into that and look for the next opportunity that we have together....

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