 Where Do I Sit?
I walked into Caribou Coffee a little late one day last week and the place was packed. My normal “office,” the leather chairs in the front of the shop, was occupied. I took a look around and noticed that every table was taken. Then I realized this is an opportunity for Kingdom Living.
One aspect of living in the Kingdom of God is realizing that God is always at work. Sometimes what looks like a coincidence is really a God-incidence. So I grabbed my mug of coffee and looked for a person where God might be at work already. It was much easier that I expected, one of the regulars noticed me and offered to share his table. We both paused from working on our computers and got to know each other a little better than recognizing that we both work out of the same coffee shop. We had a great conversation getting to know each other. He was very interested in what we are doing as a church.
As it turns out it was the perfect place for me to sit that day as multiple people sat with me and talked with me that day. Thank you God for God-incidences. |
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 If you look at the Calendar you will notice a few new things about to begin. But I would like to draw your attention to one in particular, “Share Sunday.” On February 22nd we are setting time aside for everyone to share what God is doing in our lives.
We are confident that God is at work in the lives of His people since He has promised to never leave us and given us His Holy Spirit to lead and empower us. But we are also very aware that we don’t always have the opportunity to share our stories with each other. So we have intentionally chosen a week to give everyone and opportunity to share.
What Do I Share?
You may be wondering, “What do I share?” Well, let me give you a few ideas. You can tell a story of God’s work in your life. You can paint or draw a picture of God’s work in your life. You can create a collage and tell us about it. You share a metaphor or tell a parable. You can read a few verses of the Bible and share it’s impact on your life. You can write a poem. Still not sure what to share? Give Pastor Jason a call and we can work on it together. |
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 I am blessed to have a great relationship with my father-in-law, Russ, I usually just call him Dad.
Russ demonstrated a great example of using his gifts to develop relationships while visiting with us over Christmas. Dad loves to make crafts and things out of wood, a big example can bee seen in the front room of our house. Last summer Russ made custom bookshelves to transform our front room into our new library.
Every Christmas Russ puts his skills to work by making interesting, handy Kitchen tools. Last year it was wooden toast tongs, so you don’t shock yourself. This year it was a weird shaped stick, that turns out to be a very handy tool for moving the rack inside a hot oven, genius.
Russ uses these tools to be generous and develop relationships. He visits friends and neighbors and gives his handcrafted wooden tools; they are so unusual they always spark a conversation. After giving the strange shaped gift he sometimes begins the conversation with a question, “Can you guess what this is?” Russ has developed a great way to combine his hobby, his gifts and his love of people to develop relationships.
How can you use your hobby or interest to be relational?
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 Last week I noticed my dogs going crazy at the fence as another dog approached. As I watched the dogs run up and down the fence I realized that this dog was missing his owner, but the dog looked familiar. I thought I had seend this dog last week while walking my dogs.
I decided to catch the dog and try finding his owner. AFter some effort and help from another neighbor, I caught the dog, called the number on the dog-tags and walked through the neighborhood.
I walked all over the neighborhood, but could not find the dog's owner. Heidi and I were headed to the pet store to have the stray pup's tag scanned to find the contact information for the owner. Suddenly Heidi asked if I had stopped by one of the rental houses in our neighborhood, she had noticed a new family had moved in. So Heidi rang the bell and the new neighbors turned out to be the dog's owner. We had a great conversation and got to know a new neighbor.
God can use all sorts of circumstances for His glory. God can even use a stray dog and a little effort to bring people together. What can you do to develop relationships with new neighbors?
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