Can it really be the end of February already? This month has flown by for me. I am feeling a bit more settled in and am getting the hang of my schedule a little more every week. I have been spending a lot of time at home. This is nice for the most part but it tends to leave me feeling isolated and alone. That is not good. Feeling alone and isolated can drive us to seek connections that are unhealthy and often dangerous to our relationship with God. Knowing this is true I have been trying to find places with people to connect with.
I was blessed with some wonderful and fun human interaction this past week. On Friday I got to go bowling with some awesome people from our church! I don’t go bowling often so I didn’t have high expectations of a great score (which was fair, I don’t think I broke 100) and just went hoping for a fun time. It was great! I met the couples and a few of their kids and we bowled like no one was watching (hopefully no one was, cause man do I stink!). One of the greatest blessings was getting to know these people better and interact with their kids.
The other blessing I received was on Sunday. Drew Krupp (one of our amazing youth leaders) and I have been meaning to go play some disc golf and finally took the chance to go up to Grants Pass and play at a beautiful course there. Our first round after not playing together was more about breaking the rust off, and boy was I rusty! While we were playing we met a guy who was playing by himself and asked if he could join us. We said yes and went on to play a couple holes with Shane before his friend Bill came and joined us too. What started as a simple game to get our throws back for Drew and I turned into an afternoon of walking with these two strangers for a little while and chatting back and forth about life and the best disc to throw for a particular shot. It was one of the best days I have had since moving to Oregon!
These two stories remind me of how important it is to be out and engaged with people where they are at. Finding safe spaces to interact with others can be a challenge nowadays. One way we can do this is join people where they are at and walk with them for a bit. Get to know them, have a relationship with them, and open the door for deeper interaction by letting them know they are safe with us.
As we go into March be thinking about what you like to do. Consider places or spaces where people are doing that thing and see if you can join them. Recognize that your hobbies and activities are important to God’s kingdom. He created you with those gifts and abilities to further His plan of redemption wherever you are.