Stranger Honesty

Alright, It’s Monday again, let’s see if I can make this a weekly thing.


Restlessness seems to be everywhere. I don’t think I talked to anyone all week that I thought came off as especially grounded and satisfied. Should I be surprised by this? If I draw from personal experience alone then my answer would be no. Let’s try and look at it another way shall we, is restlessness really such a bad thing? I mean it can certainly be linked to ambition, you don’t get restless when you’re happy in the one place that you are, and if that restlessness spurs positive advancement then that’s great. But WHEN are we going to be happy where we end up?


Last Thursday I went to the coffee shop to read the Bible a little bit and hopefully get some inspiration, considering I hadn’t cracked it open in a week I was overdue. I get all set up outside on the porch and am about to start when a young girl asks to borrow my lighter. Before I know it she’s telling me her entire life story; she’s 21, Italian, has just moved to Santa Cruz from San Francisco where she spent 3 years managing a coffee shop that her Dad (After almost dying from a heart attack in Venice) owns, she’s about to start Cabrillo after a 4 month work exchange with the Mt. Madonna hippies wasn’t a good fit, she wishes she was a genius like so many of her artist friends in the city, and now she’s conflicted because her biological Dad has moved to Thailand to pursue new entrepreneurial dreams and wants to fly her out there. Restless.


Now I wasn’t in the mood for this to happen but I felt like the Holy Spirit was leading me though out my entire conversation with this girl. There is certain, almost magically, freedom that comes when strangers are honest with each other. As I gave this girl advice on her situation she paid attention to me in way that actually made me think that she’d take it. She mentioned how she was adopted and how she really loves her step-dad and thinks he’s a solid guy, and that even though she doesn’t come from a stereotypically perfect family it isn’t something that she’s ashamed of and it what made her who she it. To which I changed the subject and replied,

“You should take that excellent point of view and apply it to your beef about ‘not being a genius’, what you have is going to make you who you are, you’re unique and you can’t make yourself something you’re not; trying to is only going to waste your time.”

Reading that back now I’m wondering if I phrased it better, or if I didn’t set up the context very well, but whether it was the timing that I said it in or maybe the way she connected the dots when she listened but she was totally relieved when she heard it and said “Y’know I never really thought about it like that before, but thanks that really helps.” And I know it was genuine because she wasn’t particularly polite.


By the way, I never did get into the word that night, but hopefully the Holy Spirit owes me one now. I could definitely use a conversation I could count as personally profound. And since I finally did get into the Bible tonight I’ll leave you with this:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanks giving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” –Philippians 4:6 & 7-