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En Beyond the Weather
You’ve probably talked about the weather at least once today. Maybe the traffic, too, or last night’s hockey game. Canadians are experts at small talk, and that’s not a bad thing.
In fact, small talk is often where meaningful conversations begin. The real question is whether you take the next step.
As a believer, you carry the greatest news the world has ever heard. But too often, for many of us, it never makes it past, “Cold enough for you?”
Here’s the surprising part: the people around you may be more ready to go deeper than you think.
In 12 experiments with more than 1,800 people, researchers from three universities found that people expected deep conversations with strangers to feel awkward. Instead, those talks felt better than expected, and people walked away happier and more connected.*
Small talk isn’t wrong. It was just never meant to be the last word.
And on a GO Trip, deep conversations have a way of finding you. Just ask Bethany.
Bethany, a young believer from Canada, spent a week on a GO Trip in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. Her days were full of day camps, an English camp, and time getting to know Brazilian culture and other believers around her.
Across three day camps, students from different local schools came to the Word of Life campsite. Word of Life is a key ShareWord Global partner, working alongside GO Teams to help reach the Next Generation across Brazil.
Between times filled with fun, games, and laughter, the students gathered to hear an important message: the gospel. As the day went on, the GO Team participants then sat with the kids one-on-one and in small groups to talk about what they had just learned together.
But the conversation Bethany remembers most wasn’t with a student. It was with a teacher.
Bethany sat down next to her, with a translator and another Canadian team member. As it turned out, the teacher spoke English very well. She didn’t need much help with words. But she had questions, and lots of them.
She asked about faith. She asked about Jesus. She asked what happens after you die and what Christians believe about it. She already held some beliefs of her own, but she wanted to understand more.
No weather. No traffic. Just the biggest questions a person can ask.
The teacher never said she believed. But her questions showed she was listening closely, and her face told the rest of the story.
“She was really, really interested and really curious,” Bethany recalls.
That week, Bethany noticed something about herself, too.
“Sometimes I tend to just talk about…the shallower things and not go into the deep things,” she admits. “But God’s been prompting me to share more of my testimony…and more about what He’s doing in my life.”
So, she did. She opened up with the people around her and shared what God was doing in her story. And the “deep end” turned out to be the place where she grew the most.
“Sharing that [my testimony] with people around me has really allowed me to learn and…grow,” she says.
The researchers at those three universities had it right. Deep conversations aren’t as scary as they look. A curious teacher in Brazil showed it, and Bethany lived it on a GO Trip.
Somewhere, another student, teacher, or stranger is waiting with a question only the gospel can answer. Small talk might open the door. Your story can help them walk through it.
Bethany’s advice is simple: “If the Holy Spirit is prompting you to go, then you should just go and just follow where God leads you.”
Start with the weather. Just don’t stop there.
Go deeper.
Go.
“...And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.” 1 Peter 3:15b
*Source: The University of Texas at Austin, “Swapping Small Talk with Strangers for Deeper Dialogue Offers Surprising Rewards,” https://news.utexas.edu/2021/11/18/swapping-small-talk-with-strangers-for-deeper-dialogue-offers-surprising-rewards/
