New Friends!

No matter where we are, if our hearts are open to God's leading, adventures and surprise encounters are surely in store!  Sarah and I were reminded of this last weekend in a wonderful way.

Sarah had just finished her first year of Physical Therapy school, and we agreed that we needed to do something to celebrate.  So we booked a couple evenings at the Lied Lodge in Nebraska City, where neither of us had been before.

We had our special dinner, used the pool constantly, walked the trails, toured the mansion, and just about everything else imaginable as well.  It was a great opportunity to share some time together, laugh, and learn a little more--just the two of us.

But God must have decided toward the end it was time for us to find some friends on our adventure.  It was early evening of our second night, and we both decided to take advantage of the wine tasting, as the trip simply wouldn't be complete without at least sampling the local flavors.

Within a heartbeat of walking up to the counter, God introduced us to our new friends.  As I reached to hand my glass to the server, a friendly voice said, "Look at all those bracelets!  I want to hear about each one of them."  And so our evening began.  We tasted small sips of local wine, and I told small hints of the stories wrapped around my wrist.  We found out that our new friends were celebrating their 39th anniversary, that they live very near to us in Lincoln, and that they had many stories of their own to tell.

Before we knew it, our mini tasting events were over, and our new friends had invited us to dinner with them in the lodge.  We had planned to eat pizza and play cards alone in our room that night, but we felt that God was nudging us forward.  "Sure!" we both belted out.

Although there were several favorite parts of our evening with our new friends, there is a particular favorite that is especially worth telling.  When Sarah and I are on vacation or spending "couples" time, it is my foremost duty to be husband and friend, even before being pastor.  So I actually make it a point not to tell people what I do in Lincoln until directly asked.

As we prepared to begin our meal, one of our new friends offered to bless the meal.  (I think I was planning on it, but didn't want to seem too eager.)  It was a beautiful, deep, polished, gentle prayer.  I was enjoying it.  But right in the middle of it, the husband's wife said cheerfully over his prayer, "Okay now, let's wrap it up Billy Graham!"

The prayer ended, and I thanked our friends for blessing the food.  The husband said he was happy to, and for some reason, it just felt like the right thing to do.  His wife though, hoping not to offend us, remarked to her husband, "Yeah, but how do you know they're not Jewish!  We don't want to scare them away!"  We all chuckled, I assured them I wasn't Jewish, and we went on with the evening and stories.  It ended up being quite the night of stories and laughter, and I eventually revealed my Pastor identity.

Thinking about this part of the evening in particular makes me smile.  I admire our new friends.  They were willing to approach us rather than stay inside their own private world.  They invited strangers to join them for dinner.  Then, without pause, they put their faith out in front and asked for blessings over the meal.  They did this ALL before they knew anything about who either Sarah or I were.

Our friends provided such an easy example of what it means to be the hands, heart, and feet of Jesus in the world:  approach, invite, share, and love--all without any prerequisites or fears of rejection.  I look forward to sharing a meal at some point in the future with our new friends.  But just as much, I look forward to making NEW friends, using the beautiful example provided to us last weekend.  And so I say to each of us:  go and make some new friends and see how easy it is to share Jesus' life with others.


More to come!


Jason <><