Salon Talk

I spontaneously visited my salon last Sunday afternoon. {And when I say salon, I use the term pretty loosely... the kind with $13 haircuts cuz I'm cheap.}

And I had a great conversation with my new hairstylist. {That's what spontaneous visits get you... your stylist is out... you get someone else... you find that you love them or hate them. This one I loved.} She's spunky, hilarious, gentle on the waxing {another spontaneous thing}, and great to talk to. She grew up Baptist but is now "heathen" as she referred to herself, and only attends church every Easter.

We had a wonderful conversation, talked about marriage, commitments {she's on her 4th marriage}, kids, life, God, Satan, and the end times. Interestingly enough, we've been going through the book of Revelation at church this year. I've never gone through Revelation verse-by-verse with this much detail. Going into it, I honestly wasn't quite sure what I believed. I just believed what I was taught when I was younger. Now I know what I believe, but I still haven't fully wrapped my head around all of it. Ultimately though, I think all that matters is that Jesus wins in the end.

One of my favorite sayings from our pastor is "In the majors, conviction. In the minors, tolerance. In all things, love." When I am debating theology with strangers, I especially think this is important. Debating the nitty-gritty details of the end times isn't what's important. Talking about where we stand in our relationship with Jesus and where we're going when we die is important. We chatted about this a little bit, but once it shifted topics I didn't feel comfortable bringing it back.

We talked about life. All the bad things that have happened to us. A lot of bad things have happened to her. She has every right to want to crawl into a hole. But she hasn't. She's loving life. And even though she no longer has a deep faith or trust in God, she still knows her stuff, and knows she should get back to church. We also talked about how easily it is for us to let bitterness take root... but that we just can't let it. I told her one of my pastor's favorite sayings which is "Whatever doesn't make you bitter, makes you better." She loved it too.

I think...I hope... I struck a cord with her. I hope to continue to develop this friendship. I look forward to my next conversation with her. I invited her to our church for Easter...I hope she comes, or at least goes to a church! 

Do you ever take up the opportunity to talk to people like this in your life? I wish I took up the opportunities more often. It's challenging. How do you do it?