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Best time of worship

I love unexpected blessings that result from a detour.

The original plan: To dine at Zingerman's Roadhouse for the first time, with a dear friend whose days in town are counting down (going to the Roadhouse was one of the things on her bucket list).

What actually ended up happening: Catching-up, worshiping, and praying OUTSIDE while enjoying God's gifts!


Lisa and I had been planning this for a while now and I was super stoked about having this one-on-one time with her. The detour came when she began telling this long story about how the HS challenged her to fast for pre-christians in her life. I've never understood the hype about Zingerman's (gah whoever's reading this, please don't kill me) and frankly never thought it was worth the price tag or wait time. Despite me having communicated this, Lisa was SUPER apologetic about not being able to follow through on our original plan.

We ended up picking up some drinks from Panera and heading over to the Diag to catch-up while enjoying the completely out-of-the-blue gift of beautiful weather. The time catching-up and testifying to God's work in our lives was awesome as usual, but the clincher was really what followed. We moved to a lesser congested part of the Diag (to respect those around us who were studying), whipped out a guitar, and started publicly (!) praising our Lord JC for all the great work He had done, free-worship style, just like the summer when we led together. A handful of people walked by, some with confused looks, others intentionally looking away, or a few even commenting on what we were doing. I've always been cautious about publicly singing songs of praise, wondering its effectiveness in reaching the audience of people walking by--but this time of worship was for us, not for them. We brought the guitar so we could just.. personally worship (for our own sake) while enjoying the weather (enjoying the weather = another form of worship), not so we could grab people's attention or leave an impression. But what better way to pray for the lost in this city than to actually BE immersed in the midst of the HUNDREDS that had flocked out to enjoy the weather too, right?

Sure we could have worshiped and praised God in the midst of our private conversation at a restaurant, but what made this time today so powerful was that we did the same thing, just in a public setting. Who knows what impression our verbal conversations, audible lyrics, or act of praying left on the tens of people that walked/sat/tanned near us, but I'm so thankful for the detour that allowed us to worship Jesus personally aND publicly.


I left our time together wanting to reschedule all my meet-ups this week to involve sitting outside with a guitar. Not sure if the weather will permit that, but definitely a mental note for spring term :)

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