Allergy season hit about a month before the mini marathon I was supposed to be running. My training waned and I was feeling less than confident about my participation in the impending race. Meanwhile, life was as busy as ever. Work, sleep, eat, church, ministry, eat, sleep, repeat. It was very predictable. Or at least it was, right up until about a week before the Mini.
On the evening of April 21, the Sunday before the race, I popped into the back of my church's member's meeting and found a seat in the back row next to a couple from my small group. I had arrived late because I had been serving in the nursery and after a short while, my friends next to me also got up to take a shift. Since there were people standing in the back, I slid over into their now empty seats in order to make room for others to sit.
It wasn't until I had scooted over that I noticed Ben had been sitting on the other side of that couple, and was now right next to me. I had chatted with him a few times before. He was in my prayer room Sunday mornings and we had some mutual friends. He was nice, but I didn't know much of anything about him, and to tell the truth I had kept forgetting his name. At least once I had to confess my failure to remember, apologize, and ask him his name again.
After exchanging smiles and whispered greetings, I set my attention on the meeting. But Ben seemed to have other ideas. He began quietly chatting with me, making comments here and there. I don't even remember what he talked about, but I remember being really surprised by how much he wanted to interact during the meeting and really impressed by his friendliness.
The meeting was running long, so the elders asked for more volunteers to serve in the nursery. I jumped up and headed out, determining in my mind that once the meeting was over I would find him again so we could continue chatting.
When I found him after the meeting let out, he was talking to some friends who were also running in the Mini Marathon that Saturday. He had heard that I was running in the race as well and wanted to make plans for a group of us from church to all meet up that weekend before or after the race. I already had plans with a few friends from church to pick up our race bibs and gear that Friday, and Ben had plans to meet up with friends from out of town the same night, so we agreed that our groups should meet up on Saturday morning and all go to the race together, and then grab lunch afterward.
Parting ways that evening, we had formed a vague plan to meet up later in the week, with no real concrete details as to when or where. Though I was feeling even more skeptical than ever about the race and my readiness for it, I was happy. Even the fact that we had forgotten to exchange numbers and had no way of contacting each other to set up our meeting on Saturday was of little consequence.
Something new and exciting had broken into the tedium and monotony of my life and though I had no idea what Ben thought of me, I had taken notice of him as an encouraging and friendly brother in Christ. I had no expectations, but I was looking forward to getting to know him more.Labels: every day life