I wish I could be a better sharer of my faith with others. Some people seem to have a natural inclination or higher comfort level inviting people to church or talking about faith matters. Me…no. Awkward…very much. I say dumb things.
At the UPS store today getting some paperwork notarized for my parents; I happened to be wearing a hoodie with my church’s logo on it. Somehow the second UPS employee (I’ll call him Tom) recognized the name and he asked if we were a Korean church. I said we were affiliated until this year but we have moved to a new location recently. I wondered how he knew and if he was Korean. He said “yes.”
That was something we had in common and we all chuckled about him struggling to unlock the bathroom door. It felt easy to ease into a conversation. I asked, “Do you go to church?” What I meant to ask was if he was a Christian or something much more refined. This could be divine appointment; maybe Tom needed some encouragement or a nudge to think about faith matters. I could be that person.
In the meantime, I signed, organized the mailing with the notary person. When I turned around to see what my kiddos were doing, it was normal shenanigans.
Comparing whose scalp smelled worse. What the heck?!
He used to go to church only for hanging out with friends and playing sports: in his words, “for all the wrong reasons.” He doesn’t want to start going to church because he’s not ready to give up his lifestyle. I’m not sure what he meant by that, because we all have lifestyles we struggle to give up but can’t or won’t. That wasn’t going to stop me from asking again.
Plus, I didn’t think those were wrong reasons; lots of people come to church to meet friends and check out the community. Then I said the dumb thing: “we’re not mean people.” Stop there. What is wrong with me?
My intention was to share that God wants us to come as we are. We can never clean ourselves up or live a lifestyle that is perfect and holy. I meant empathy through my idiotic comment. I wasn’t ready either but showing up was the start of my Jesus journey. Like many pastors say, the church is a hospital; for those hurting, broken, and wounded.
He chuckled at my comment. I hope he knew what I meant to say. After processing my payment, I waved goodbye: “Tom, nice chatting with you. Take care.” He looked shock that I said his name even though the name tag was on his shirt.
Walking back to the car, I asked the kids their opinion about “we are not mean people.” They wholeheartedly agreed it was dumb. (ugh, pure honesty sucks in times like this).
We prayed for Tom and asked that that conversation will have some goodness for Tom. Maybe jotting down our church’s website or other online Sunday services would’ve been helpful.
The conversation in the car was lively and full of teasing. It was a candid talk about how not to share faith like that and to be prepared for next time. But we all agreed God can make good things happen even through blunders.
Thankfully God is in the business of working with imperfect people and bringing good out of imperfect situations.
Categories: Random Thoughts
singlikewildflowers
Welcome to my blog! My name is Esther and I'm so happy you are here. I'm an avid nature photographer and a daydreaming thinker. My posts revolve around photos of nature's beauty, homeschooling adventures with my 2 kids, sporadic reflections on my child's heart condition, Bible reading reflections, gardening feats, and other mish mash things. Hopefully you'll leave encouraged, pensive, or smiling at the simple things of life. Thank you for stopping by and hope you'll find some interesting posts to read!
sing like wildflowers 
Just remember, no seed we plant is ever wasted. Good job.
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Thanks Anita for the encouragement! It’s good to know that it wasn’t for naught but that God can use it for good somehow.
Have a wonderful weekend and take care. 🙂
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I like how you know that God has it all worked out and he knows what people need to hear and when!
And I think we all have special ways of sharing our faith – some of us love first and speak way later – some people speak right away and just have a different evangelizing style – ☀️💛
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Thanks Yvette! During the conversation, I was asking God to help me say the right things. I don’t think I did a good job but hopefully something good will come out of it for the UPS guy. We do all have special ways of evangelizing and that’s what makes the body of Christ unique and effective. Thanks for the reminder! Hope you are having a great weekend.
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We all need that reminder – right? And sometimes our kindness and warmth and smile speaks volumes – as you know – but it also sounds like you felt a connection with this person and sometimes that opens the right door for chatting –
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😀😃
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You never know… I’ve felt like I said some pretty dumb things only to learn later that it was exactly what the other person needed to hear! Perhaps Tom had met some mean people at church in the past and he needed someone to say that not all Christians are mean. You just never know… I think saying something is better than saying nothing. 😊
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That’s encouraging to hear! Thanks for sharing your experience with me. You’re right…you never know what God can do with what little you give. I was silent before but now I try to muster up courage and share. Blogging about my faith has helped me grow in that area. I really struggled with this in the beginning.
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Just like everything else…sharing your faith takes practice and we blunder along the way. It is definitely something I struggle with…and the saying dumb things. But like you said, God uses our attempts and…just like riding a bike or anything else, it takes practice and at the beginning it will be hard and we will make mistakes…this is me reminding myself as much as anything. Thanks for sharing!
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So true…takes practice and in the meantime I’m learning through my weaknesses and failures. lol. Thankfully, God can do much with our weaknesses. Thank you for your encouragement and insight.
You keep going too with your sharing!
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I have not been to church in a very long time but do say my prayers daily and light candles on a regular basis. My parents did not go to church because my mom didn’t drive and my father did not want to get up early on his only day off from work. There was no church in Canada within walking distance, so my mom packed me off to Sunday School with my current friend, so it was Lutheran, Episcopalian and Baptist, but not Catholic which I am. I have two good friends, both are former nuns. Considering I have very few people I know as most of my college or high school friends either moved on their own, or married and moved out of state for their husband’s job, it is unusual to have two friends that were former nuns. I also used to work for a lawyer who left the priesthood.
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Linda, that is interesting to have 2 friends who were former nuns. Are you still in contact with them? Wonder what their experiences were like. I went to a Catholic junior high school and had some nuns as teacher. I remember one particular nun who had a sweet smile and demeanor, an older lady. She didn’t wear her habit but we all knew she was a nun. I had difficulty learning and I remember she looked at me with tenderness when I couldn’t summarize the biology process that we were assigned. I was a horrible learner and felt overlooked in school. The mean teachers were the english teachers; 2 of them especially hated me. So sad and traumatic. Ohhhh, I digress.
Growing up, I attended Lutheran, Catholic, and Episcopalian schools, and Church of Christ college. Columbia was the secular school I attended longest, but my faith grew most there. Funny huh?!
I didn’t know you were Catholic…my best friend is Catholic. It’s great you do your daily prayers and light candles!
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One friend is Ann Marie whom I just mentioned in my blog post and she has not read that post yet. The other is Sandy, a neighbor down the street. Then my former boss, Tom, was a priest. What the odds of that. My mom desperately wanted me to attend Sunday School services, so she slipped me in between everyone. 🙂 I do my prayers walking to or from the park – no one sees me mumbling under the mask.
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