(Written on Tuesday, June 19, in a hotel in China, unable to post until I returned to the USA.)
Well, I blew it tonight. It didn't even occur to me that I could have. I was on a random street in a random town in a random country where the native language wasn't English, and I was tired. I had just finished a good dinner and had just started heading back to the hotel when I heard someone say "Hello." Again they repeated "hello!" I am used to walking through big cities in foreign countries (and at home) and just ignoring people who say that. They typically want to sell something. It didn't even occur to me that this would be different. Again she repeated "hello!" And still I continued to walk by without looking. Eventually I glanced and halfway smiled, and I noticed it was a young lady, perhaps 20, respectfully dressed, and a handful of other girls. I saw her for about half a second, but continued walking. I didn't really think anything of it. As we're walking to the corner to get our taxi, one of my colleagues said "she was talking to you." Still, it didn't really register. Or at least that's what I tell myself. But after it was too late I realized, duh, she was speaking English to me, and duh, she wasn't trying to sell me anything. She just thought it novel to see a white man walking by and wanted to say hi, and I snubbed her. There goes a huge opportunity to put my money where my mouth is and prove that "everyone matters" by taking two seconds out of my day to stop and say hi, or even have a short conversation with her. But I was tired, and now it's hours later, and she was a random girl on a random street in a town of millions, on a planet of billions, and the opportunity slipped through my fingers. Not that she matters to me specifically, but she matters to God, and what better way to prove it than to have acknowledged she existed and maybe even told her explicitly that God loves her. Hopefully next time I'll be better prepared.
Well, I blew it tonight. It didn't even occur to me that I could have. I was on a random street in a random town in a random country where the native language wasn't English, and I was tired. I had just finished a good dinner and had just started heading back to the hotel when I heard someone say "Hello." Again they repeated "hello!" I am used to walking through big cities in foreign countries (and at home) and just ignoring people who say that. They typically want to sell something. It didn't even occur to me that this would be different. Again she repeated "hello!" And still I continued to walk by without looking. Eventually I glanced and halfway smiled, and I noticed it was a young lady, perhaps 20, respectfully dressed, and a handful of other girls. I saw her for about half a second, but continued walking. I didn't really think anything of it. As we're walking to the corner to get our taxi, one of my colleagues said "she was talking to you." Still, it didn't really register. Or at least that's what I tell myself. But after it was too late I realized, duh, she was speaking English to me, and duh, she wasn't trying to sell me anything. She just thought it novel to see a white man walking by and wanted to say hi, and I snubbed her. There goes a huge opportunity to put my money where my mouth is and prove that "everyone matters" by taking two seconds out of my day to stop and say hi, or even have a short conversation with her. But I was tired, and now it's hours later, and she was a random girl on a random street in a town of millions, on a planet of billions, and the opportunity slipped through my fingers. Not that she matters to me specifically, but she matters to God, and what better way to prove it than to have acknowledged she existed and maybe even told her explicitly that God loves her. Hopefully next time I'll be better prepared.