Two Skinny Vanilla Lattes to Go!!!!

Yesterday was interesting because I had an opportunity to go to a “job fair” at another area Starbucks and do some recruiting. I met many of the other managers from the North Dallas locations and I realized something- people that work at Starbucks come from ALL walks of life (including the side streets and alleyways!)

I met a couple people from other parts of the country, which is always cool, hearing stories about what brought them to Dallas. I even met a guy who used to be a “dancer” (and in his words, “not the kind of dancer that would make your mom put a picture of you in your outfit up on the refrigerator”…). Just when I was about to ask him how he puts that on his resume, turns out, this Starbucks manager was also a “jokester” in his former life and he told us all that he was kidding. (I, personally, don’t think he was joking, but the look of horror on all our faces made him change his story…haha!)

These stories prompted me to reflect on my own journey of hills and valleys that has led me to Starbucks (no dancing in my past…except that kind that did get pictures passed out to aunts and uncles of me in my little red shiny penguin outfit that my mom won’t let me live down even to today…I think I have burned all the evidence, but I’m sure she has hidden pictures of me posing in that horrific outfit from when I tried my hand at jazz and tap at the young and ambitious age of 13.)

The last couple years have been especially interesting in my life. And by “interesting” I mean volatile, arbitrary, capricious, and, most importantly- blessed. This morning, I was MOST inspired to find this verse, waiting for me, in my daily devotion-

“The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.” Colossians 1:5 (The Message). The devotion continued to read- “[Hope] refuses to extrapolate either desire or anxiety into the future, but instead believes that God’s promise give the proper content to it.” Wow!!! Anxiety and desire have driven a lot of decision I made in the past couple years…I wasn’t relying on God to just provide me with the direction and clarity that I needed to make my decisions based on the faith that I knew He would put me in the right place at the right time. I was trying to control my own destiny and I didn’t have the HOPE that I used to have when my dreams were evident and filled every part of my heart.

Just like when I was visiting with the other managers- we were talking about our past dreams, what we “wanted to be” when we grew up… And we were all laughing at how those dreams are changed and shaped based on our circumstances or external things that happen to us. I was a person of BIG dreams, and when my dreams took a shot in the heart, they were dead to me, and in my confusion and frustration, I lashed out at the one person who could help me reshape and restructure new and BETTER dreams- God.

Now, I know that the HOPE for which I live is in Him alone, not in my own power or control. He has put me in a wonderful position to talk to people all day, to change lives doing something fun. I am surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses,” and I am, spiritually, in a place of humility so that I can (as my mom reminded me yesterday) live “free” under that daily Grace that I am saved by!!

Oh the blessings that God can bestow when we allow Him! I am blessed to have a family that never says “quit!” and that has taught me that the “lines of purpose in my life never grow slack!” My purpose is clear, and today it is:
“Would you like whipped cream on that?”