Saturday, October 11th, 2003 - Why Not?

I randomly ran into one of the ping pong guys tonight. I suppose I should explain who they are. Basically, I went to Chi Alpha Students for Christ and filled out one of the welcome cards with my name, number, email and stuff like that. I got a call later in the week from some random guy saying that he thought it was cool that my email address was godandpingpong. Him and his 4 roomies have a house with a ping pong table and they're all crazy about ping pong. So they invited me over and we had some awesome time talking about the Word and then playing some ping pong. Collectively, I call those "the ping pong guys."

I ran into one of them and he told me about some guys hanging out at a house where 3 Chi Alpha guys lived, and I got directions there. I went back to my room after talking to him a bit and sat down in my chair. I didn't want to go to this one house, but I had no idea why; I wanted to meet people and had an opportunity here. My shy bug was kicking in, and now that I've given it some thought, I think I understand myself a little bit better.

I am an extremely introverted person. I know many of you look at that statement and just laugh. "Doug, you were the craziest guy in youth group who was just all over the place; there's no way that you're introverted at all." However, I am introverted at first; the larger the group that I'm in, the less likely I am to talk to people. The strange thing is, once I feel comfortable (in some cases even just a little bit), I sort of "explode" socially; it may be difficult to shut me up, if you so desired at the time. The different "states," if you will, are more different than night and day. This is not uncommon in many people, but in me it seems more drastic and extreme than "normal." I can't explain exactly why this is, but I think I understand that that's the way I am better than I have before.

God didn't show me all of this through pondering until just now. So I was sitting there in my chair wondering why I didn't want to go to this guy's house. I signed on to Instant Messenger, and started to talk to one of my great friends from UWL last year. We talked a little bit, and I told her about my situation. God spoke through her to remind me of a song on the Lizzie Mcguire soundtrack (great movie, great soundtrack, go get it today). So I played the song and heard exactly what God wanted me to hear.

The chorus is like "Why not... take a crazy chance; why not... do a crazy dance...," but the part that hit me was in the first verse. "So walk a little slower/Open up your eyes/Sometimes it's so hard to see/The good things passing by." It rocked my face off. She was so encouraging, too, telling me bluntly to sign off and get my bum over there (which is what I needed). So I ended up walking randomly off campus (the long way, I found out later) trying to find the right house.

There had been a post-game barbeque there earlier, but thankfully for me, there was only about 8 people there. This was good, starting out small. I was wearing a hoodie from an underground Christian rap recording label, so another guy who listens to the same music asked me about it and we talked rap for like 2 hours. Not only did this guy listen to the same stuff that I do, but he has a bunch of stuff that I've never heard of before. In short, meeting this guy was such a blessing and made my night.

He told me about a club that he's starting on campus - a hip hop enthusiasts' club for people who love rap but don't like the messages and lyrics of mainstream and secular rap (the stuff you hear on the radio and see on TV). I'm all over that like none other - we meet on Thursdays, so I'm excited to go for the first time this week.

I didn't really talk much else other than to that guy about rap, so I did just kind of sit there for awhile, too. However, I'm so glad I went. I think it may be a good step in overcoming shyness to some extent. It was only by God's amazing grace to send my friend to talk to me on Messenger and give me the encouragement to take this small step. God proves to me one more time that He works through means that I never expect. I could have never told you that Hilary Duff's words would help me to be more outgoing. Haha, that sounds really funny to me. That reminds me - I think I'm going to post the Christian analogy to the Lizzie Mcguire movie that God showed me awhile ago. But you have to see the movie first, or it won't make any sense. It is the only movie that I own, so you can take my word that it is a great movie!

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