Nosy But Wonderful (And Not iPod Thieves)

Wow. I do not know what to think about that.

The nicest people just talked to me at Starbucks; I mean the nicest. To be honest, I'm just glad they didn't swipe my iPod.

I was sitting in Starbucks sort of half-reading Donald Miller, pretty bored, and wishing someone I knew would come in so I could have some decent convo. I mean, heck, I've literally sat at my house every day for the past three weeks; I'm dying for some convo! Also, the four dollars I had stuffed in my back pocket before walking in were scorching through my pants, so I left my copy of the Message open to a nice place in Genesis (so no one would take it-duh) and concealed my iPod mini (are those even WORTH stealing anymore? in my wide-open backpack. I am very trusting. The other night, at another Starbucks, as I was coming in from retrieving my coat, a well-intentioned woman told me to "watch my stuff; those kids'll take it!" I thanked her, and told her that those kids were my friends, which they were.

So tonight I came back to my seat clutching my caramel latte and, with half the Harley-Davidson Winter Catalog being sported by the two dozen bikers to my left, I sat down to enjoy it. I got the convo I was hoping for.

Daniel and Kelly Williams really are wonderful people, to be sure. Extremely nosy, but wonderful. Kelly, the apparent pants-wearer, asked about Donald Miller, The Message, my spiritual beliefs, my hometown, my college...uh...path, and my facial hair. I ended up breaking down (among other things) what its like to grow up Church of Christ, what I was thinking as I enrolled in four schools in three years, and my current state of mind towards the church.

They were very warm and attentive, if a little naive to progressive Christian culture. Okay, so they'd never heard of Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, Louie Giglio, The Irresistible Revolution, or instrumental worship (kidding...), but their plant church has a cool name! The Master's Fellowship. Which honestly sounds very cool. My new friend Daniel is the Pastor of Preaching as it says on the card. The congregation of 28 meets in what is a dance studio by day and poses as mini-sanctuary on the weekends.

Daniel and Kelly have two kids, 6 and 2, and were genuinely stoked about their newborn church (it's a week old). They didn't talk much about that, though, and preferred to ask me probing questions regarding my spiritual life, which was totally fine. The sum of his questions and my answers actually amounted to my "testimony," which is something I think we should all give regularly; if nothing else than to just keep your memory sharp.

I talked about growing up as a Church of Christ kid, and how it was rigid and, to some people, suffocating. He asked how I came away from that religious experience (I had told him earlier that I went to Long Hollow Baptist Church) and I told him about how I came to know Jesus through a Bible study (with some good ol' Baptist boys!) and through Blue Like Jazz and, in his words, "through God's great mercy."

I never really thought of it that way. Not because I don't agree, I just never thought of it. I suppose God, who is with me even as I write this, desperately wanting a more intimate relationship with me, his miserable creation, did show me a great mercy. His mercy, I suspect, came with open-mindedness, and came dressed as a Baptist Bible study!

So, eventually I told them that I had placed membership at Long Hollow but didn't consider myself a Baptist (I'm a Christian), that I had been re-baptized, that I wanted to be a writer, and that I had a passion for loving people, marginalized, unlovable people. They were genuinely interested, and nearly threw out their shoulders trying to shake my hand first as they left.

It makes me feel so good when adults are genuinely interested in me; in my dreams, in my thoughts. I think youths (Am I a youth? I am sporting quite a beard...) are vastly under-appreciated today.

To be honest, I will probably never go to their church beside the Wal-Mart. I feel like there are wayyyy too many churches around here anyway, and I nearly asked them why the heck they would start a church in the buckle of the Bible Belt, but I didn't get around to it. They were so nice. Again, I'm just glad they didn't steal my iPod while I was up, so the good convo was an added bonus.