Have you ever felt like life moved in slow motion during a conversation? Recently, I caught up with an old friend and found myself critiquing my conversation as we dialogued. It felt like an out-of-body experience. Suddenly, I was struck by the shear shallowness of my focus. My conversation could have easily been a scene from a TV sitcom. While catching up on the latest details in our lives, I noticed how everything revolved around homes, jobs, family problems, gripes and unfulfilled dreams. We spent most of the time talking about work. God only garnished the conversation a few times.
A few days later, I see a former ministry leader at church and briefly catch up on the latest news. I talk about buying a new house. He tells me about his son’s engagement. I ask about their future daughter-in-law. They ask about my experiences owning a home. It’s your pretty basic, surface level church foyer conversation. God is mentioned in passing. Everything is always good even when your favorite dog just died, you lost your job and the bank is about to repossess your house. Everyone smiles and walks away. We are content to remain familiar strangers. Of course, there are those people who find that each new day bring another crisis. They always talk about how rotten their live is. Nobody likes to linger too along with them because talking too long with them can make anyone depressed.
Then I met another old friend while in Home Depot the other day. Hoping to improve upon my previous conversation flops, I made sure to talk some about what God had been revealing to me through recent life experiences. This conversation had more life in it than any casual interaction in recent memory. We got beyond casual chit-chat and discussed issues that stirred the soul a bit. I want to try to include God as a featured topic in more of my conversations. This is not to show off but to exalt God. When people ask about my life, I should have something to say about God since He is supposed to be the one who makes life worth living. My conversation should be a testimony to others because my life should include many God moments worth discussing.
If all I ever talk about is my new house, the latest at the job or how my favorite ball team is doing, maybe I live a more shallow life than I would like to believe. Or maybe I am just accustomed to service level chit-chat? Maybe I hide behind the same walls of fast food conversation as everyone else on the planet? Either way, I think that I am going to season more of my conversations with the delicious truth about God’s work in my life.
