Transcription

So in a church one of the greatest tools you can use is the check-in counter. Because you get information from people and you help kind of figure out what it is they need. But in your life, one of the worst things you can use is a check-in counter, because what happens at the check-in is you keep a barricade between you and other people and you are simply there to receive information and tell them what it is they need to know.

Now that’s great if you’re checking in at a church and trying to get your kids into a class. It’s great when you’re checking into a hotel and you’re trying to get to a room. And it’s great when you’re checking in to a, ya know, an event and trying to figure out where you’re supposed to go. The problem is when you do this in life.

And I’ll tell you for those of us who are introverts like myself, we live behind a check-in counter. And this kind of protects us and keeps us hidden from other people and what we do then is we kind of relay information to and from each other of what are the basics I need to know about you. Who are you, what do you do, how can you benefit me, is this worth my time, and then I’m moving on and going back into my shell so to speak.

What I’ve learned in my life is that I’ve spent too much time right behind this. And I have kept people at arm’s length because I just assume they don’t get me, they don’t understand me, and it’s not worth the trouble. In other words, life is crazy and people are drama why mix the two.

And so over the last few years, I’ve just been doing a deep dive on this and trying to figure out how do I get beyond this check-in counter to build relationships with other people, to know who they are and they know who I am. And for some of us that’s going to be a lot of people, for some of us it’s just gonna be a few people, but all of us need some people. So I write a lot about my personal pain in this and even some of my understanding of being an introvert in an extrovert world in this book called Better Together. For more you can check it out at my website, pastorrustygeorge.com and let me just encourage you with this, as scary as it is on that side of the counter, it’s better.