I had an interesting experience this past week that I've been thinking about a lot.  While I was out at the Center City Summit in Boston last month, I got introduced to a wonderful gal named Trish Ryan.  Trish is the newly published author of the book, "He loves me, he loves me NOT!"  The book is a memoir of her personal journey of searching for love and ending up finding both a husband and a connection with Jesus.   Guys... you might not be into the book quite as much, but the women I've talked to about the book absolutely love it. 

Anyway, Trish talked at the conference about her path to pursuing writing and eventually getting a book finished and published.  Last week, I was emailing a bit with a gal named Rachel from our church.  Rachel has been feeling drawn towards writing as well - not necessarily towards the goal of getting published, but as a spiritual exercise to encourage her and others.  As I thought about Rachel, I got excited about introducing her to Trish, hoping that Trish could be helpful in Rachel's exploration of writing.   Through a couple of exchanges online, they did end up connecting, and have now started some correspondence on their own. 

The night after this all happened, I was laying in bed pondering if that exchange was teaching me and amazing lesson in helping friends of mine connect with Jesus.  Here's some things that I noticed that I did and didn't do with Rachel and Trish:  I was genuinely excited for Rachel to meet Trish, because I had a sense that they would really enjoy each other and that Rachel would really benefit from what Trish has been through; I didn't set the terms of their relationship... instead, I invited them to start talking and seeing where the connection went;  once the initial contact was made, I was out of the loop for the most part.  Rachel and Trish now have a relationship with one another.

That seems really different than how I have often approached inviting friends/acquaintances into relationship with Jesus.  What if it's more like what happened with Trish and Rachel - that I encourage a friend to make an initial connection with Jesus... to start a conversation if you want to put it that way?  What if I could actually put more trust in Jesus engaging in relationship with my friend, rather than me feeling the need to pre-define the terms of that relationship?  What if my main role is to encourage a friend to keep pursuing a connection with Jesus and to see where that goes? 

I don't have any neat and tidy answers to all this stuff yet.  But I do feel like there is something significant in the experience that I want to learn more about.   Maybe some more thoughts coming along these lines soon....