“You know, its not often that I feel like a Starbucks but today I do. I feel like it will get me going!” Betsy said to Barrett and me. That was music to my ears! I went to my favorite Starbucks hoping to see my long lost friends, but they were not there. Shoot. I was hoping to see them. Instead, this other guy that I’ve seen many times who always looks like life has given him a bad deal, took my offering. He has a dark, thick beard tickling his mouth, with his head covered with the same longish locks offsetting his dark, sad eyes. “So, you’ve worked here awhile, I think I’ve seen you here before,” I said as I waited for our drinks. “Yeah.” “Do you go to school?” “I graduated last May.” “Cool, what was your major?” “English and Photography.” I told him how I took a photography appreciation class in school and we discussed our favorite artists as his face lit up. He handed me our treasure in a cup. “Well, I’ll see you later, have a great day!” I said as I left.
Barrett’s parents, Barrett, and I sat in their hotel hot tub as the ice storm outside froze away our plans for that evening. A 30-40ish year old gentleman came and joined us in our boiling bubble heaven in the midst of our colorful telling of Betsy exploits. After a few minutes, I turned to him and gave him a brief synopsis of our living situation to fill him in and he smiled. We asked what he was doing there and then we sat and listened to him tell about his AIDS and HIV training he was attending and how he teaches AIDS awareness around Kentucky. We looked at each other nervously as he told us that the HIV virus would die if one of us had it in the hot tub water we were all immersed in and the new treatments that are available if you do contract it. The pool closed and we all got on the elevator together and said good-bye never to meet again.
After church yesterday I hurried over to Pii Bui, “Sawad dii ka!” we exclaimed with a wai. She and her new husband just moved here for seminary, her from Isan (NE Thailand) and him from another part of Kentucky. She can speak terrific English due to her work with American missionaries. “You know, I always look for you in church!” I told her. “Me too!” We jabbered in Thai about work and life and then hustled off to our lunch engagements.
I was just thinking this morning how so often “chance” or quick meetings can be so encouraging. So often Barrett and I talk about how many people we want to have over to eat and hang out with but get discouraged with our lack of time. But as I look over the past couple of weeks, the random meetings of a firefighter friend, seeing a girl I knew from Word of Life 12 years ago, and quick hello’s have meant so much to me. I guess Im learning that encouragement doesn’t always have to come with planned outings or hours of fun (although I love those), but with simply stopping for 5 minutes to ask a name in the midst of normal daily duties or using the same time to talk with a sad-eyed lonely laden person. We’ve been learning about what it means to be a human made in the image of God and how so often we treat people as objects or things to overcome in our life’s search for success and meaning. If only I could see everyone I meet as God’s creation, maybe then I wouldn’t rush through check out lines or look down as I pass someone on the street instead of looking them in the eye and smiling. Maybe then I could pass encouragement instead of just passing by.