Life is filled with pleasant surprises when you least expect it. The sad thing is that, what I experienced yesterday should be the norm, but it’s become the exception.
I am blessed enough to be able to do most of my work in a coffee shop. While sipping away on a cappuccino in Melbourne, marking some persuasive texts , a guy and his wife struck up a conversation with me. I was in a rush to get my work done and was hoping that it wouldn’t become a full on conversation. It ended up being one.
They were from New Zealand. He had those great Maori tattoos and they spoke with those awesome sounding accents. We spoke about teaching, ministry, social issues, rugby, biltong and braais. We even spoke a bit of Afrikaans/Dutch as her parents are from the Netherlands. What a friendly couple. I am so glad I took the time to speak to them.
We have become so self-consumed that we seldom take time to talk to a stranger. We are very good at sending emails, texts and posting things on social media – in fact we have become addicted to it. We don’t even make time to have a face-to-face chat with our friends anymore. While sitting on the train on my way home last night, I was surrounded by a group of 8 people, all on their phones. They were together but hardly said a word to one another for the entire duration of the trip.
- We can choose to stare at screens all the time – or not!
- We can choose to be friendly to strangers – or not
- We can choose to do something nice for someone – or not
- We can choose to live a self-consumed life – or not
As for me and my family, we choose to spend time with one another, we choose to care about others, we choose not to judge and we choose to serve the Lord. What choices are you making?
Have an amazing day!
Mark Davidson
