“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

–Winston Churchill

I love meeting new people. I love casual, spontaneous conversation even more, when you take the time to stop what you are doing and thinking, to look someone squarely in the eyes and gift them with your full attention for a few minutes.

It requires a couple of things from you. First, you must stay in the moment and not allow your thoughts to wander. Second, you must consider the person valuable and the conversation sacred, no matter the topic.

I find people so enticing, in fact, that I never complain if I’m asked to wait. Just park me somewhere and I will watch those around me with great interest, knowing that before long someone will take a seat next to me and we will be in conversation.

My husband says I have an invisible sign pinned to the front of me, visible only to those in need of a listening ear. It reads, “If you’d like to talk, I’ll be happy to listen.”

I am married to quite the conversationalist as well. And it was an encounter my husband had with a Korean woman, sitting next to him on a flight to Memphis, Tenn., that brings me to this week’s thought: If you make the effort to reach out and connect with people, God will not only touch your life with remarkable individuals but will use you to touch their lives as well.

It is for this reason that I am not a great proponent of chance, because far too many amazing people have crossed our paths to give merit to the concept. And more times than I can count have these encounters involved people of faith, which amazes me.

Mihi is a 44-year-old cancer researcher, working at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Arkansas. Within minutes my husband learned that Mihi completed her Ph.D. program in Japan and lives in the U.S. to continue her study of environmental toxins and the role they play in an individual’s susceptibility to cancer. Matt discovered her to be extremely intelligent and tender. After an extended time of visiting during the flight they agreed to email.

It is over the Internet that we know much more about Mihi — where she was born, interesting information about her parents and her work in cancer research. We have also learned she is a Christian (only about 30 percent of Koreans are) and that our shared beliefs beautifully circumvent culture, distance and her broken English. It provides an immediate level of trust that might never have developed — or at best taken a long time to establish — without the element of faith.

Most of the time conversations begin when we slow down, look others in the eyes, smile and simply ask God to open the door to worthwhile interactions with those with whom we come in contact.

This is one of the great rewards of faithful living: Having the eyes to see and the heart to appreciate that God actively moves, interacts, and unites His people with great purpose, even in gentle conversation.