Hanging Out at the Bar

On my business trip last week I had the pleasure of staying in awesome accomodations at the Orlando World Center Marriott. Wow! What a great place to have a convention!



After the meeting on day one, which was last Thursday, my old assistant manager, Cherub, came to visit with me. She moved to St. Petersburg in February and I MISS HER A LOT! It just so happened that our regional meetings were being held in Orlando, which gave us an opportunity to connect and catch up a bit. It was good to see her.



Well, she came up that Thursday night and we hung out with the other managers from my district. Where is the choice place for them to hang out? Well, since I've started going to these meetings I have never gone to "hang out" so I really didn't know for sure, but I assumed. I always sit in my hotel captivated by the tv...since I don't have but one channel at home, it is a real treat to sit with remote in hand and watch as many programs at once that I possibly can on the hotel tv. The others usually hang out at the bars. Bars?...they just aren't my scene. At all.



So, there I sat in Champions Sports Bar. It was busy...many other managers had the same idea, to hang out there and drink away the night. Some had a few beers, some had more, some had more than enough. I was so out of my element. I was seeing things I don't normally see. I was hearing things I don't normally hear. I was many times shocked by the conversation! Cherub chuckled at me and at one point said "wow, Sue, you are really out of your element!" NOOOOOOO KIDDING!



I sat there thinking should I be here? Does it appear that I might condone this type of activity just because I choose to sit here? I couldn't really participate in the conversation because, well, just because of the crude language being used and the topics were really NOT something I could contribute to. One of the guys kept "apologizing" for being so crude and saying things like "Sue, this is the first time you hang out with us, and well, I guess I'm giving you quite an initiation". I still kept wondering if it were right for me, a bible believer, to be sitting there?



Was I being convicted to leave? I held a mini conversation with myself. I concluded that there was nothing wrong with me being there. Part of the time I was having fun. I laughed, I did converse some. At other times I was offended by what was being said and every time, I got an "apology". I told them that I knew that I was free to leave at any time. I found myself waiting for an opportunity to share my faith. I thought...you know, Jesus hung out at these types of places and He always seemed to wait to be invited into the conversation. I decided I would wait too. I never got the opportunity. I figure that Jesus was sometimes at parties and never had the opportunity to share, but that even so, he stood for something. People saw him. They heard him in conversation. They saw him having fun.



Cherub, who I have tried hard to be a witness to, saw me. She heard me in conversation. She saw me, a Christian, having fun...even among the wolves. So did the others'.



I eventually was so tired that I left and went to my hotel room. I did a lot of thinking that night on that experience and at some points I doubted if I should ever be in those situations, but I do eventually conclude that there is no way to develop relationships with people if I always withdraw to my hotel room instead of "hanging out" with people on their turf. What do you think?