Question Series: Week #2: Do I have that "thing?"

I had a really cool interaction with a girl the other day at the nail salon. Her name was Libby. (I love that name.)

The first thing I noticed about her was her red curly hair. Really beautiful and sunny. It only took me a few minutes to see why God blessed her with that particular hue. It matched her personality to a “T.”

Libby struck up a conversation with me, sitting at the nail dryer. I have to tell you, it was not what I originally had in mind. I was thinking about hurrying to pick up my three kids who had been at a friend’s house for most of the afternoon. I was not thinking about having a conversation with a stranger. I wanted to get out of there. But Libby didn’t know it.

So we conversed.

Actually, Libby conversed, and I listened.

I smiled, uncomfortable at first in veering off of my time agenda. (If I haven’t mentioned it before, I quite like to plan out my life.)

But then I forgot all about it.

She talked about her children…her church…her impending adoption of a child from Ethiopia. I at first wondered if she noticed I wasn’t talking at all. But I’m not sure it mattered. With every word, passion spilled out of Libby. I found myself being caught up in listening to her. I thought about what a different interaction I was having with her than the one I had with the woman in the hair salon that inspired my book. I thought about hanging around to hear more. Where I was once ready to leave, I now found myself wanting to stay. And listen. To Libby converse.

She apologized for talking so much. I’m not sure she even heard me say I didn’t mind. I couldn’t believe it, but I didn’t.

Libby was familiar to me, though I was sure we had never previously met. Though I only knew her by her first name and her identifying hair color, I got a sense from her. She was real. Genuine. Not counterfeit. Completely non-fictional. And...captivating.

Listening to Libby talk made me want to do things for God on a day that I wasn’t really feeling the passion to do anything much, at all. I found myself wondering, What is it about her that makes me want to sit here longer and listen to her talk? What is it that in 7 short minutes of meeting her now makes me want to consider things I wasn’t considering today?

She had that “thing.”

That “thing” that drew me in. That “thing” that made me feel like I wanted to do more. That “thing” that caused an agenda-driven girl to lay aside her agenda and sit and listen, taking it all in. Libby had it. Suddenly, I knew where it came from.

“Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” (II Cor. 3:16-18: The Message -- My emphasis added)

How can you tell if someone is truly real? Sometimes you can’t.

But most of the time, you just can. Because they have that "thing."

They are bright. They are beautiful. (and it has nothing to do with DNA) They are captivating. They stand out in a crowd and remind you of Someone.

They are strangely familiar, even in the first 7 minutes of meeting them.

They make such an impression on you that you write an entire blog about them.

They are genuine and real, and they don’t even have to tell you that for you to know it for yourself.

You just know.

Because once God enters your life to the point of infection, you look like Him, smell like Him, talk like Him, and shine like Him. Like Libby, you have that “thing.”

Lisa