Every Interaction Matters

There's one thing that you can be sure of as you go about your day. You will interact with people. The cashier at the grocery store, the mechanic who changes your oil, or that worker that rubs you the wrong way. And what we all seem to forget is that everyone is dealing with stuff. Everyone has challenges and hardships that they face, which we know nothing about. 

How could you know that the dry cleaner's sour attitude lately was because his wife's been dealing with cancer, or that your coworker's lack of follow through and tardiness was due to his marriage being on the brink of divorce? 

Life is often challenging. It has a way of wearing you down, but having someone who understands, someone who will listen and offer support makes all the difference. This is why every interaction matters. We were not designed to do life alone and to handle life's blows on our own. Your connection to other people isn't random, it doesn't happen by chance. They are divine opportunities to help make someone's load a little lighter, their struggle more manageable, and their day a little brighter. 

Carrie had been serving us for as long as we had been going to the diner – several years at least. She gave us indications from time to time that her life hadn’t been easy, but she never complained or allowed the focus to be on herself. Instead, she always seemed to be friendly, positive and generally upbeat about life. We loved seeing her and went out of our way to be encouraging toward her each Saturday when we saw her.

One Saturday morning as we were wrapping up our Guys Doing Life meeting, she approached Mike near the back of the restaurant. He had stepped away from the table to use the restroom. She said “you know how you guys pray at the end of every meeting?”

Mike smiled as he loved knowing people were noticing us being transparent in our faith.

“Yes”, he said, “every time”

“Well, could I ask you guys to pray for my son?”

“Of course!” Mike said, “How can we pray?”

“Pray that he would come to know Jesus” Carrie said as she looked down at her feet. “He seems to be more interested in learning about religion and stuff lately, but I don’t know who he’s talking to or what is influencing his thoughts right now.”

“What is your son’s name?” Mike asked.

“His name is Jeremy. He’s 18 and he’s had an especially rough go of it the last year or so. Maybe that’s why he’s finally wanting to learn more about God.” Mike assured her that sometimes it does take hardship and difficulty for us to soften our hearts to God. He asked, “What does Jeremy know about Jesus and what He did for us?

Carrie shook her head side to side and answered “I’m not really sure. He’s heard Bible stories and has been to church a few times when he was growing up, but we never really went to church long enough to hear the whole story and make sense of it all.”

“That’s okay,” Mike said, “God will make a way to reach him. Does he live nearby that we could invite him to talk with us?”

 Carrie again shook her head no but didn’t say anything else. She seemed to withdraw at that point and Mike sensed she just needed a bit more time and space before she would share more. Mike asked Carrie if it would be okay to share the conversation with the rest of us and assured her that we would pray for Jeremy each week going forward. He also told her we would be praying for her as well.

We prayed for both Carrie and Jeremy in the weeks that followed. Carrie gave a little extra attention to our table, sometimes even stopping long enough for us to pray with her if the diner wasn’t too busy. She began sharing a little bit more about herself and her son’s journey together. Jeremy’s father had never been involved in his life. He was a good kid at heart, but he had fallen into the wrong crowd at school. He had been fighting and getting into trouble from time to time. Without a father figure in his life, Carrie struggled to control his rebelliousness by herself. She was embarrassed and ashamed of this.

After all his prior incidents, a routine traffic stop with marijuana in the car landed him in a juvenile rehab center. Only immediate family could visit and only once a week at that. Although some of her friends knew what was going on with Jeremy, Carrie lost hope that Jeremy could change the trajectory of his life, especially in “prison” as she called it. She didn’t know who to turn to or talk to about it until she thought of 4 guys who prayed at their table every week.

We brought Christian books and reading material for Carrie to take to Jeremy to read. Carrie said it prompted some great faith discussions between she and her son. She seemed tickled to share with us that Jeremy as asking questions and sharing insights about Jesus that were even surprising to her. Carrie couldn’t believe that she and her son were having very genuine and meaningful conversations about God.

We began to notice a change in Carrie. She was still friendly and upbeat, but we could see a peace and authenticity about her that we hadn’t seen before. There is no doubt in our minds that while there were other factors at play, sharing her burden and a growing hope in Jesus as an answer to her son’s struggles were giving her a peace she hadn’t had for a very long time. The prayers and support Carrie was receiving were strengthening her faith and confidence about the future for both her son and their relationship.

After this, we never thought about “Every Interaction Matters” as simply encouraging someone or helping them to have a better day in a specific moment. It was much deeper and farther reaching than that. We realized that reflecting Jesus in our lives, our actions and our words consistently and repetitiously over time was having an impact more powerful than imagined. We saw our witness to the world as a form of stewardship and ministry that deserved to be intentionally demonstrated over time. Every Interaction Matters isn’t an interpersonal skill or behavior, it’s a way of life in our walk with Jesus.