Life's Quirks

One of those things about Reno, good or bad depending on who you ask, is that it really is a small world. I went to the gym for my daily excursion into self-torture, and ran into a girl I knew from high school. I didn't recognize her at first, but she asked if my name was Dave, introduced herself, and we had a half hour conversation as she finished her exercise and I began mine. We talked about where our lives went since high school, what we are doing for work, how we aquired the furniture in our apartments, and other bits of trivia.

Why is it that I can have a completely natural conversation, even while short of breath with sweat dripping into my eyes, with a girl I hardly know when in the course of my everyday life, but in the church, my attempts at conversation often come across as wholly unwelcome? Maybe it's me, maybe girls in church are different from those in the world, maybe I was too tired on account of the cross-country machine to care.

Maybe it's just that in this instance, someone was kind enough to say "hi." It's amazing how much knowing that your conversation is not only welcome, but desired. It's nice to have someone talk to you like a normal person - it makes it infinitely easier to respond in kind. It's also amazing how often this doesn't happen in the church, in the kind of authentic, friendly way that invites your participation. I talk to my friends, but hardly anyone else. Outside my circle, I don't approach anyone, and the only people that approach me have known me since I was a child.

What would the church be like if people who hardly know you struck up a genuine conversation, without pretense, without expectations, without acting as though they were doing you a favor by speaking to you, or looking over their shoulder for the more popular people to be avilable to speak with?