September 30 – “An opportunity”

My fire department uniform dress hat finally came in yesterday, just in time for the conference I’m going to this afternoon.  I was asked to do the invocation at the International Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) Conference here in town.  Chris and I went down to pick it up from the office.  Slowly checking off everything.  Still need a second badge and a name plate.  Trish also presented me with the “official” uniform shirt for the month of October.  In recognition of breast cancer awareness month, all the fire fighters will be wearing pink shirts while on duty.  So if you see a fire fighter wearing pink, that’s the explanation.

I also managed to fit in a haircut yesterday.  Always an interesting experience.  My preference when I’m getting a haircut is to relax, close my eyes and check out for those few minutes.  Sometimes the one cutting my hair realizes that and lets me escape.  Not so much yesterday.  I drew one of the new stylists.  I never care who cuts it.  I don’t even care much what it looks like.  I don’t have to see it much.  She did her dead-level best to engage me in the idle chatter that is the usual fare of the haircutting world.  Her first attempt was to go for the weather.  “Beautiful day.”  “No rain in the forecast.”  I was polite.  I gave my very best one-word answers and smiled.  Maybe it was the smile I should have left off, because she moved on to a new topic.  Wanted to know if I had been to the shrimp festival.  I sighed to myself and tried my best to warm up a little bit, resigning myself to the obvious.  She was not going to let up.  I told her a little bit about the family version we had been to over the weekend with Christina’s Dad providing the shrimp dishes.  That’s all it took.  She was off.  She asked question after question as she cut.  Again, I did my best to stay focused on what she was saying. 

 

Finally I guess she couldn’t think of any more to say about shrimp, so she switched topics again.  This time she told me she and her husband were moving this weekend and wondered what internet provider they should use.  I am certainly no connoisseur of cable, but one thing she said leapt out at me and lurched me from my lethargy.  Moving.  To.  Jamaica Beach.  Yep.  That’s what she said.  And suddenly it all became clear.   That’s why I was supposed to stay connected in the conversation.  I told her I was the pastor of the church there, and we talked some more about who we use and who Nathan uses.  By the time she finished with my hair, I was handing her one of my church cards and she was assuring me they would come to church and visit.  OK, Lord.  I’ll try to pay closer attention next time to the opportunities you put right in my lap to represent you.

Colossians 4:5-6 says, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Father, thank you for that conversation yesterday at the barber shop.  Woke me up a little bit when I least expected it.  Amen.