Knitting in public can snare you some interesting results
Last night, I was sitting outside knitting. I was waiting until a specified time when I was supposed to meet someone at their apartment, so, having arrived early I did what I always do when I have a knitting project on the go and a bit of spare time: pulled it out and started working.
Suddenly I heard, "That is the cutest thing I have ever seen!"
I looked up, confused. An extremely good-looking Chinese guy was standing there smiling at me. Tall, well built, very cute.
"What, knitting?" I laughed.
"Knitting in front of an apartment building. What are you doing here?"
We started chatting and exchanging flirtatious banter. I have to admit it was a bit flattering: it's been a long time since a cute guy flirted with me.
"So, tell me something about yourself," he invited.
"Well, I knit."
"I know that! Tell me something I don't know."
I paused for a moment. I had a choice. Do I tell him the most important thing about myself, something guaranteed to stop the flirting and frighten him away, or do I give in to the flattery and say something lighthearted and inconsequential?
"I'm a Christian," I said.
His smile froze. He went silent. He looked at me warily.
"I thought I'd tell you the most scary thing about me," I said, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
"That is scary," he said. "Are you, like, a hardcore Christian? I've had a lot of conversations with hardcore Christians, because I'm a Buddhist."
"Oh yeah?" I asked him a few questions about his Buddhism, and he asked me about my Christianity. I told him what it meant to me to be a Christian. I left him with a card from my church with my phone number on it.
Somehow, I don't think I'll be hearing from him. But hopefully, the conversation meant something more than a random flirt. Hopefully, God's on his case and tracking him down. I don't know. I prayed for him.
Sometimes being a Christian is harder than others. Like, scaring away the first cute guy in ages to flirt with you by talking with him about Jesus. It hardly qualifies as suffering for the gospel. Nonetheless, I have to admit that there was a little twinge of regret. Ah well. Maybe I can start up a ministry: street evangelism to cute guys. With knitting.
profnachos:
A few points
1) Nobody EVER tells me that I write the "cutest" C#/ASP.NET/Java/C++ code when I program in public.
2) Could the guy have come up with a lamer (gayer?) pickup line?
And most importantly, HOW DO YOU KNOW THE "CUTE" GUY WASN'T KOREAN INSTEAD OF CHINESE?
Now on a more serious note, I don't mind not calling ourselves Christian. It was a pejorative name given by the world, not by God. I see in the Bible no edict from God or even from the apostles saying, "ye shalt be called Christians."
Susanna:
lol.
lol, it sort of worked though.
Because he told me.
I told him that I preferred to call myself a "follower of Jesus" because that doesn't have the negative, ambiguous or religious connotations that "Christian" often does in the world's eyes.
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