Being Present

I remember, as a child of the 90’s, the days when “running errands” with the parents was a full-day assignment. We stood in line all day. As a child it was frustrating, now as an adult those routines are slipping away. When the line is too long at the store, it is tempting to leave the cart, go home, and shop online. The days of small talk with the person next to us in line are fading away. Even on campus there is a norm where students walk to and from class with head phone in their ears *but nothing is playing*! Headphones in the ears, it turns out, is the universal sign for “don’t talk to me.” We are becoming overly busy, less present, and more impatient. But sometimes we reverse the pattern, and someone “knocks at the door.” (Rev 3:20)

Each Thursday, the McCarty Student Center hosts a Dinner & Devo. One necessary but often forgotten item for this event is ice. So, one Thursday afternoon, a volunteer made a trip to the store to stock up on ice, and something incredible happened. As they were “running their errands”, loading ice, waiting in line, scanning the magazines, nothing of note happened …until they reached the register. The cashier, seeing the nine bags of ice simply asked, “Why all the ice?” In the brief interaction, they talked about McCarty, devotionals, and the desire to start going back to church. By the end of the transaction, our volunteer left a card and a personal invitation to that evening’s devotional. None of which could have happened had the volunteer been wearing headphones or the had the ice been conveniently ordered via online pick up. I do not know if we will ever see that cashier again, but I sure hope so.

The conversation was not a beautifully scripted, articulate mission statement of the McCarty Student Center. There were a few stutters and awkward pauses. As we all do, they mentally replayed a few moments they could have approached differently. But as they say, “We’ll do better next time.” Step one is to simply *BE PRESENT*. “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who, bring glad tidings of good things!”” (Romans 10:14–15) If we want to shine our light in the community around us (Matthew 5:16), we’ll need to take our head phones out, stand in a few more lines, a say “Hi” far more often.