This morning, I had the opportunity to sit down with a friend of mine, Ben Konfrst, and hear a little bit about his story. Typically, I write blogs about people I run into in coffee shops, but after spending an hour with Ben, I knew I wanted to include him on this blog.
We arrived at Cup of Joe at 8 a.m. and ordered our drinks. He ordered an iced mocha latte and told me he got it iced because he thought getting it hot would wake him up more than he wanted to be that early in the morning. I chuckled to myself and just shook my head as we headed to the back of the shop and took our seats on adjacent couches.
After some basic chitchat about our lives, classes and our weekend plans, we somehow landed on the conversation of faith and God. Personally, I’m not one to shy away from the conversation and it didn’t sound like Ben was either. We talked about how we were brought up and how as kids living with our parents, what we believed wasn’t as much what we chose to believe but what our parents told us to believe.
“When I came to college this past fall, I realized that my faith was now truly my decision. Nobody was telling me where I should go to church, or if I even had to,” Ben explained.
Throughout our conversation, it became pretty obvious that this man is on fire for Jesus and is excited to share about His love for others.
I never expected our conversation to head in this direction. I never expected us to spend a solid 45 minutes talking about faith and Jesus, but that's the cool thing about coffee shops; they are an environment where you can forget about everything else and just enjoy other people's company.
As we finished up our conversation on faith, I began to realize how important it is that we take time and talk to the people around us. Whether it be about the weather, sports or faith, engaging with those we pass by everyday can lead to some great conversations.
This week, I’d like to challenge you to talk to somebody new in a coffee shop. Don’t just walk in, get your drink and head out, but take some time to meet somebody and hear a bit of their story.
- DV