Overcoming Shyness...(Oh hey, that's the title of a book in Earthbound!)

If you did not know me, you may think I am a shy guy. If you got to know me, you might think I am not shy at all. Well, I am shy...I'm just more talkative around people I'm comfortable being around. I have trouble talking to people I don't really know.

A couple weeks ago at Real Life, Chris Ward talked about how we as Christians are not where we should be. The signs are people are not being as involved as they should, going out sharing or signing up for projects. I've noticed how Real Life does not seem as strong as it used to be, but I have always thought that it could be from being here for over two years and getting used to it. It was interesting what he had to say. He said that either we have disbelief or that we are disobedient. As much as I hate to say it, I am probably falling in the disobedient section. I don't go out on Wednesdays to share the Gospel. My excuse is that I have class from 10-12 then 2-4. But then I could just use the two hours between to skip lunch and share. I could also be sharing with classmates. I admit that I fail at that too. Instead of getting to know my classmates, I usually just leave class after it ends, and the only time I ever talk to classmates are about homework or exams.

God called us to go out and make disciples of all nations. Have I made any disciples? Not that I know of...so no. Because I am selfish in that I don't go out sharing, I am disobedient. I spend too much time ranting too. I also come up with lots of excuses. I should not have this attitude. Also, by talking a lot about myself, I might still be selfish in a way.

So why don't I go out of my way to take time to get to know my classmates and other random people? As I have said, I am shy. Granted, shyness should not be an excuse, but that is how I am afraid. Pretty recently, I've been seeing a high school classmate's tumblr posts appearing on my Facebook news feed. I didn't really talk to that classmate that much in high school. In fact, I didn't really talk to or hang out with that many classmates in high school. I mostly hung out with older kids until my senior year when I started hanging out with younger people. Anyways, back to the tumblr posts. I randomly decided to read them because there were a lot of Q&A stuff and other re-postings of videos or wisdom. From this I learned...well...that this classmate was a really Godly woman. I found a lot of her tumblr posts or re-posts encouraging, and it made me wonder why I never saw this part of her in high school. The answer? Probably because I didn't really try to get to know anyone in my own class on a deeper level.

It makes me wonder how many missed opportunities I had to know the people in my own class, how many missed opportunities of growth because I didn't ask how God was working in their lives or how I did not share how God had been working in my lhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifife. Well...too late for that now. Maybe I can talk to my classmates whenever a high school reunion comes up. For now, I'm also learning to apply that here in college. In fact, in college I would consider most of my closest friends to be from my class. Granted, I still like hanging out with older people for some reason, but I am also building relationships with people in my own class. It is like I am learning from my mistakes in high school. I'll admit, I'm still not doing that great of a job when I occupy myself with school work or only talking about surface level stuff, but there are times where I get into the deeper stuff.

I also wonder how have I been making an impact in anyone's lives. I sometimes feel like I am just...there. How have I been building anyone up? I pray to God that He will work in me in that area...because I can't see how I am building anyone up. I could totally be impacting people's lives without knowing it myself, just like the guy talks about in this video...but I still am not sure if I am building people up. By using the word "I" a lot, I realize that I am being selfish right now.

Anyways, there is a lot I would like to write about. I just don't have that much time to do so. I hope you learned something valuable from this post. I feel like I ramble a lot. If it was free flow where I write down everything I think of, I would be all over the place and there would probably be a lot of lyrics to random music that do not fit. However, one day I would like to do some free flow. And now I know I really need to stop rambling.

Until next time,
Kenneth