Fuzzy encounters

One of the things I love about working at First Arlington is that we are just blocks away from Fuzzy Taco.  If you are not familiar with Fuzzy Taco, then please do not be grossed out by their strange name, for their tacos are  not fuzzy in the moldy sense, but they fuzz with deliciousness.  Today I went to Fuzzy's as I often do to grab some tacos and had a fortuitous encounter.

Walking into Fuzzy's, I saw a guy who had on a shirt that said "iServe."  I liked the shirt, and so I walked up to him and said, "hey guy, I like your shirt."  Turns out his name is Greg and he is from East Texas and is in Arlington with his church, working at Mission Arlington.  Because I'm interested in that sort of thing, I asked him some questions, and learned that his church has this thing that whenever there is a fifth Sunday of the month, they don't go to worship but instead take their worship time to do service projects.  That's how they got hooked up with Mission Arlington.

I thanked him for telling me and for coming to Arlington to serve, and we went on our way.  Once I was inside ordering my tacos, I remembered how just a few days ago in worship, we talked about the Great Commission and how Jesus sends the disciples out with instructions to "go and make disciples of all nations . . ."  Standing there in Fuzzy's, I got to thinking about how Greg and his church are living out the very thing we'd been talking about in worship.

So, tacos in hand, I went back out to the parking lot and asked him if I could take his picture on my iPhone and tell his story to my congregation on Sunday, as an example of someone who is practicing what we'd preached.  He was a nice guy and said sure, so I snapped his picture and then we went on our way again.

Now (I'm almost done with this story), just an hour ago, I was sitting at my computer, working on my sermon, and uploading Greg's picture to my computer to use in worship, and I get an email from none other than Greg himself!  He wants to continue our conversation and see if our churches can join together for some projects.

So, I'm pretty jazzed.  I'm also reminded of how important it is to have the confidence to strike up a conversation with someone you don't know.  Sometimes nothing happens, but when you don't expect it, creation and possibility emerge.