I’m an introvert. I love people, but small talk with new people exhausts me. Give me the choice between a night in with my 2 of my best friends or a night out meeting new people, and I’ll choose staying in every time. So when I moved to a new city 2 years ago, making new friends was hard for me. I had answered the question, “What brought you to Nashville?” hundreds of times, added dozens of people on social media, and shared a few meals with new friends, but I still had no one within a 15-mile radius to call when I had a bad day.
Then one day, a year after my move (and 11 months and 29 days after I started complaining about it), God reminded me of a few truths I had silenced as I pouted in a friendless corner. He reminded me that new friendships are like growing a garden. They require investment long before you can see the fruits of your work.
But He also reminded me that cultivating relationships is among the best kinds of hard work.
So, I started inviting people over. I stayed after church to talk to people. I set up times to get coffee with girlfriends and asked them real questions about their lives. I made an effort to remember people’s stories and I shared mine in return. And a funny thing happened. When I worked to cultivate these friendships, the sea of strangers that once surrounded me started to feel a lot more like a community. I knew people, and I was known. I looked back and saw all of the friendship seeds God had thrown in my path, and I reaped the sweet reward of the time and effort spent cultivating them.
Now that I have a community of people in Nashville, I face a whole new challenge: continuing to cultivate true community among my friends, all while investing time and effort in new people. I see people all over this city—at work, church, the gym, in line at the grocery store, and everywhere in between—longing to be known.
While I have to accept my limitations and know that I can’t deeply invest in everyone I meet, God has been challenging me to continue to welcome new people into my life, even when I feel like my heart has reached its capacity of people to care for. He has challenged me to love on, invest in, and cultivate new relationships with people who are in the same place I was a year ago.
Who is Jesus calling you to invest in? A younger woman at church? Your widowed neighbor? A coworker a few cubicles down?
Today, my challenge for you is to go outside of your comfort zone: whether that be to walk up to someone you don’t know very well and ask them to lunch, or whether it be to start asking real-life questions of a friend you’ve known on a surface level for a long time. Ask the Lord to whom He is calling you, then go.
Sister, He won’t disappoint you.
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As a celebration of new friendships, today we’re giving you a chance to win 2 tickets to a Lifeway Women event of your choice—one for you and one for one of your new friends. To enter to win, simply fill out the form below.
Heather Warfield, the Lifeway Women Marketing Coordinator, is an optimist, coffee lover, and guacamole enthusiast from Michigan who currently plants her feet in the sweet, sweet south. Her favorite things include, but are not limited to: lakes, trees, sunshine, good talks, fair trade chocolate, new experiences, and people who think she’s funny.
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By entering today’s giveaway, you acknowledge Lifeway Christian Resources’ official promotion rules. Today’s giveaway starts at the posting time of this blog and ends Monday (05/23/2016) at noon (12:00 pm) CST. You must be 18 to enter, and you may only enter once. The winner will be selected at random. Only participants who live in the United States or Canada are eligible to win. For questions about the rules and regulations of this giveaway, please contact Heather Warfield at One Lifeway Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-140.
