It’s around 11:00pm, I’m sitting on a bench with my head in my hands, and a local peddler walks over and gives me two sticks of free squid barbeque. As he hands them to me, he says sympathetically, “Being by yourself is lonely.” I can’t believe it; it’s one of the most ironic, hilarious moments of my life. Let me explain.
After our first “family party” at our campus, my teammates all headed off for street barbeque. I decided to walk home, and I started to get the feeling God wanted something to happen that night. I wasn’t excited about the idea; I wanted to go to bed. As I’m walking along I see a young man meandering around in a circle and I feel I should talk to him about the Son. Being the obedient person I am, I continued on by. 🙂 But I couldn’t shake the feeling. I stopped and stared at a barbeque stand. I kept looking back. What could I say? Well, I had to go to the bathroom, so I walked back and asked where a bathroom was. He and the girl he was talking to (I hadn’t noticed her) told me where to go. Now what? I walked away.
I still couldn’t shake the feeling. Maybe I’m crazy. I sit down on a bench and think. All kinds of thoughts…And I sit…And I sit. Then I lay down; then I sit up. And then the kind man who had been watching me for the last 45 minutes who thought I was lonely came over and stuck free barbeque in my face. Ha! I wasn’t lonely–I was just trying to get the courage to take a simple obedient step and talk to a dude! That’s why I was sitting on a bench late at night in a state of non-motion looking like my life just fell apart!!
I thought to myself, “If those two people are still there when I finish eating this barbeque, then I’ll talk to them. What’s the worst that can happen?”
So I did; turns out the guy was a baby believer. Attends our campus too. Just joined the family a month ago. And I’ll let you know what happens with him later. (Let’s call him Todd.)