Intentionally Relational

If you know me, you know i'm not naturally the most outgoing person. I still consider myself shy and introverted. And if you don't know me, then why are u reading my blog! lol jus joke.. Growing up, both my parents kept trying to teach me how to communicate well with others. Both my parents are highly others minded and show a lot of consideration to how others may feel. I think we asians are too timid to open our mouths, and fear drawing any attention to ourselves. I always admired how more Caucasian people naturally have more confidence to speak, greet, and be social.

The tricky and difficult part is when the Holy Spirit kinda nudges you to greet someone or to speak words of encouragement. I think we need to overcome the nervous fears of interacting with people we don't know or don't relate to. I think of how Paul told Peter to not jus interact with the Jews, but that he should also be inclusive to the Gentiles. Sometimes, we just get comfortable talking to only our friends and people we know. God calls us to step outside our comfort zone, and to reach out to people.

Tonight, I met this girl after the church's grief share meeting. I tried to be intentional and asked the usual questions to get to know someone. She mentioned that she moved here for school and didn't have much friends. In fact she has a hard time making friends. I mentioned how it's hard and scary to move somewhere where you don't really know too many people. I encouraged her to come to the young adult group or sunday services. Sometimes we all go through pains, seasons of loneliness, or just times when we feel like no one is really there for us. Sometimes it just takes an ounce of courage to try and make a new friend. I think asking questions is the best way to start interacting with people.

When we're younger, it's somewhat easy to make friends since you see the same people in all your classes. But as you get older out of school, you really do need to make the intention of being social. God can use us in small ways to do big things. Sometimes i get so caught up with, how do i benefit out of this time, what am i getting out of this, how is this meeting my needs. When really God says, you're actually here to give, serve, pray and minister to people. God's loving spirit in community offers healing to brokenness. As Christians we need to be intentionally relational and to have the boldness to act when an opportunity arises.