Flirtgangelism

London pub, 2014

“So, you know, Bud Light isn’t really a beer, right?”

“Really?,” replied the server who had just shown me the beer list – bottles and drafts – and then told me $2 Bud Lights were the evening special.

“Nah, it’s basically just water.”

“Well, I guess that explains the ‘Light’ part. I don’t drink beer, so I wouldn’t know. Now hard liquor, I could tell you.”

It was the usual restaurant banter that my wife, Lydia, in one sentence claims is flirtation and in the next tells me it’s a wonderful gift that I have. Evangelism, basically – immediately engaging in a conversation with a stranger who I know nothing about simply because she is another of God’s children. 

Flirtangelism.

By the end of the night, I knew her name is Crystal, that she is 30, married for less than a year, and is now 7 weeks pregnant. The first child of an only child of an only child. Everyone is thrilled.

So she’s not drinking at all these days – not beer or hard liquor. I heard about her intolerable morning sickness and that she’s been told to keep saltines by the bedside so she can eat them before getting out of the bed as soon as she wakes up.

“During my pregnancies,” I slipped into the exchange, “Graham crackers helped.” She gave me that baffled look of confusion that often is the response to my random statements.

Pregnant, little, middle aged, white man – cognitive dissonance flashed across her face.

God is in these moments. Be they flirtations or evangelism or ramblings or profundity. God is in these moments because it is in each other’s faces and through our small interactions that we can today experience God. A beer in the bar, a baby in the belly; a smile, a word – God is there.

Will I ever see Crystal again? I told her I would stop by and check on how she’s getting along. The place is within walking distance of my house but I rarely go there. Will I check in on her?

Maybe. Maybe not. Yet, whatever, God is there.

In that small exchange this week, God was there. In each encounter we have with another person, we experience God who lives in our lives.

© Copyright 2015

James F. McIntire

All rights reserved.