For the most part, I am not an extrovert. I’m not very good at talking to new people and frankly I’m usually fine living in my little bubbles and not having a ton of surface level friends. I prefer to have only a few deeper level friendships. I do get sad at times when I see parents throwing birthday parties for their kids and they have 20 other kids there or when we were getting ready to leave Austin and didn’t have a huge going away party.
But recently I felt a nudge from God. To be more intentional of the time I have. Specifically relating to the “meet & greet” at church that usually happens after the announcements and before the bumper videos. God told me to start looking for the one person in my vicinity that I felt like no one would talk to…and go and talk to them. Week 1 of this, it definitely put me out of my comfort zone. There was this little woman wearing a hijab sitting all alone. I introduced myself and asked a little about her. Turns out it was her second time at service, she was not from America, lived in the apartments nearby, and identified as orthodox Christian.
Taking a leap like that was not easy for me by any means but I’m hoping that with time, it will get easier. I also learned something, I should have introduced her to someone else at the church, like our connections pastor following service. I pray that going forward I can be more intentional about this.