A man and his family stopped at a gas station just outside of the new small town they were moving to. As he was pumping gas into the car, he struck up a conversation with the old-timer who was hanging out nearby.
"So...we're just moving into town. What kind of people live here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, are the people in this town friendly or unfriendly?"
The old-timer thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Well, tell me - were the people in the town you moved from friendly or mean?"
The man replied, "Very unfriendly. They were mean-spirited and we never really got to know anyone because they were very standoffish."
The old-timer continued to chew on the piece of straw that dangled from his mouth. "Well, sir, I'm afraid that this town is very much the same way. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but good luck."
The man thanked him, got back into his car and drove away.
Ten minutes later, another car pulled into the gas station. A man got out, started pumping gas, and once again a conversation started between he and the old-timer.
"Hey, mister - my wife and family and I are moving into the upcoming town, and I was wondering if you could tell me what the people were like there. Are they nice, or are they difficult to get to know?"
"Well, tell me - were the people in the town you moved from friendly or mean?"
The man replied, "They were great! Very friendly, very open, very inviting. We enjoyed living there very much."
The old man smiled and said, "Well, good news then my friend. This town is full of people just like that."
The man smiled back, finished pumping the gas, got back into his car and drove away.
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It's hard to be friendly in this day and age. I don't think it's because we don't want to be friendly - I think it all boils down to one thing: we are too busy. I find this is the case even for me on Sunday mornings. I desperately want to strike up conversations with people around me, and often do so. However, there are so many things that I'm thinking about, so many things that need to get done, that I often find myself saying hi to people and moving on to the next project or crisis. Last Sunday, I decided to try and stop doing this, at least as much as I can. Not only was I leading worship this last Sunday, but I was also trying to film people for a video clip we're showing at the end of the month. Basically, I was running around like crazy. As a result, there were several people I wanted to talk to but couldn't because of what I needed to do. At the end of the second service, I was supposed to run back to where I was filming again - but a couple of people came up to me and started talking to me. One of them I had met on Friday, the other I was meeting for the first time. Everything within me wanted to tell them, "I've really got to go do this filming, I'm sorry, I've got to go", but I decided I really needed to talk to them and get to know them a little bit. So I did. And the funny thing is that the people who I was supposed to film didn't show up anyway.
Although friendliness is actually a spiritual gift (it's actually under the spiritual gift of hospitality), it's something that we all as Christians should strive to be. Especially as the reputuation of Christianity continues to erode in the minds of not-yet-Christians due to the mean-spiritedness that the world sees of us. Someone once said, "I would gladly become a Christian, yet every Christian I meet seems to be an undertaker." Roger told me of a scene in the movie Amistad where the slaves knew that a certain group of people were Christians because of the "frown on their faces". I want to be a more friendly person. Friendliness is disarming.
The verse that I am memorizing this week is Romans 12:13 - "Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."
The self-evaluation questions were very good this week - here are some of them:
- Does my outward appearnce indicate friendliness?
- Am I friendly out of love for others or for my own personal gain?
- Does my friendliness depend on how friendly others are?
- Am I friendly at all times or only when I feel "on top of the world"?
- Have unpleasant encounters made me wary of strangers?
- Do I have a desire to be friendly but feel inhibited?
- Do my moods radically affect my friendliness?
- Am I cooperating with God to become a person who can be friendly to all people?
1 comment:
I think alot of times people who are introverts are labeled unfriendly because they don't initiate conversations or are uncomfortable around alot of people When I'm at work I always try to smile at as many people as I can in the halls I try to do the same thing at the info table on Sunday I am married to the friendliest person I know ..it's a running joke in our family that Darrell never meets a stranger..I know I get alot of comments from people at Southwest who miss him because he would always talk to everyone..it's definitely a spiritual gift that God has blessed some people with
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