What kind of sick, twisted individual came up with today’s National Day Calendar celebration? Honestly, the origins of the celebration cannot be found even though it has been on the calendar for a number of years. This is National Talk In An Elevator Day, a day that horrifies the introvert (that’s me), knowing that a stranger might take this day seriously and start talking to you while you’re confined in your mobile vertical jail cell.
Am I being overly dramatic? Yes. Am I really an introvert? Mostly. That sounds odd for a preacher to say that but just randomly talking to strangers is completely different than standing before a congregation of people you know and preaching the Word. I can talk to anybody and it’s something I can do when I must but not something I feel particularly comfortable initiating, especially when the purpose is just to gab.
For me and most guys I know, the elevator isn’t the place to strike up a conversation. It’s just awkward – kind of like when guys start talking between stalls or beside each other in a public bathroom. It’s weird! You’re there for one thing. Do your business and leave. THEN talk if you must.
I don’t know what it is about being in an elevator. For me, here’s how it should work. You get in, punch your floor button, and when the doors close – shhhhh! Look at your phone, look up, look down, but whatever you do, don’t start talking. Don’t make eye contact. Worse yet, don’t try to be funny and make jokes, especially the ones about the dangers of an elevator. I’m not the least bit afraid of elevators. I don’t have elavatophobia (that’s a real thing!) It’s just that elevators-that-go-on-the-fritz stories while IN the elevator seem to fall flat (no pun intended). They aren’t funny but some people think they are hilarious as they tell them.
Maybe I’m the one who is weird! Maybe it’s a bit of claustrophobia at work. It just seems that when the lid goes closed on the container, there ought to be a respectable silence. Well, we are in a big metal box. A vertical casket if you will. The environment calls for whispered tones at the most. Silence is golden!
Lee Gray, an associate dean at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, makes a valid point as to why most people naturally go quiet on an elevator. If a bunch of strangers enter a room, they have space to socially distance themselves appropriately. When we talk to a stranger in a larger setting, we feel more comfortable. The elevator experience, though, removes the barrier of social distancing. We are inches from another person, intimately close to strangers, and that makes most people very uncomfortable.1
There are those who think the elevator is a party waiting to happen and they bring it. Chatty Kathy and Talkative Tom have a new bunch of people to talk with, and they just know that all those strangers want to get acquainted. It’s a meet-and-greet! Hurray!!
Interestingly, I ran across several articles that suggested that it is best to NOT talk to strangers in an elevator, aside from polite interactions that might come from pushing the buttons for a group coming in or saying “excuse me” as you try to exit. Louisa Fallow, writing for whyyoushouldnever.com, gives several good reasons for not striking up a conversation with a stranger in the elevator. Besides the danger factor, one of the other reasons is the fact that a meaningful connection cannot be made in the few seconds you’re traveling up or down.2
I guess you’ll just have to decide for yourself whether you can talk on the elevator 
or not. If you do talk and the other person obviously doesn’t want to, don’t push it. Respect that they aren’t interested in having an elevator encounter with you.
Whether or not you talk on the elevator is between you and God. Nobody, including myself, has the right to tell a person to talk or not talk. And nobody has the right to tell someone else that they are wrong for their talking OR their silence. I just share the opening information as a platform to launch into today’s spiritual application.
There is no question that the Christian should be ready and take every opportunity to witness. That could include in an elevator. But carefully read what Paul wrote.
Colossians 4:2-4 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; (3) Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: (4) That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: (2) And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
Notice the common element that precedes Paul talking. Paul prayed and asked others to pray. Prayer preceded his evangelism. Is that true for us? Do we pray before talking or just launch right into talking.
The results of preparing the evangelistic ground in prayer are evident.
1 Corinthians 16:7-9 For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit. (8) But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. (9) For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
2 Corinthians 2:12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord.
Pray. When God opens the door, go through it and begin sharing Jesus. But don’t try to force doors open that the Lord hasn’t opened. WE have to share the faith but the SPIRIT has to open the door.
Revelation 3:8 gives this encouragement from the Lord. “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”
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1https://www.npr.org/2012/12/24/167977420/why-we-behave-so-oddly-in-elevators
2https://whyyoushouldnever.com/why-you-should-never-talk-to-strangers-in-an-elevator/
