When I sat down to write the last blog of 2010 (after having taken a lengthy hiatus from writing for my followers), I was under the impression I was going to write a top ten list. Favorite memories or experiences, something light-hearted and funny. However, when I think about the impact that this job has had on my heart, mind, and soul…I want to go in a different direction.
Starbucks is far from a holy place…even though for some, drinking coffee is akin to a spiritual experience. The company even goes so far as to FORBID the handing out of religious tracts or the hanging up of any religious paraphernalia on the community bulletin board.
Suffice it to say, I once had to tell a girl of no more than 8 years old that she couldn’t advertise her choir’s performance at a local church because it had the name God in it…I tried to explain that if we advertised her choir’s performance, we would have to advertise EVERY choir’s performance, even the ones that worship Satan…and from the look on her face, I don’t think I fooled her one bit because I have to admit, to this day, I’ve never heard of a church choir singing praise songs to the devil (unless you count sitting on a tack something good)…
So, the café experience isn’t one that is “designed” to be holy…but that’s the amazing thing about God. He can take a place like Starbucks and not only use it for the number one location for online dating first dates, but also make it an exciting get-away for Bible study groups or one-on-one uplifting conversations…it’s the place we meet when we need a place to meet. It’s a haven, a safe house, and at the same time, it possesses an element of adventure (outside the house) amidst the comforting smells and décor.
The people and the reasons for their being there are as varied as the population of our great planet. From mammals of the canine, four-legged variety to islanders visiting from the Philippines…from homeless to Hollywood…from the construction worker to the former CEO of Starbucks, I have met every type of person under the sun… The crazy thing is the memories that stick with me…
The lady that came in one Sunday afternoon, smiling from ear to ear, eyes slightly closed, she was humming…and why? I immediately detested her happiness and peace but I smiled and asked her what she wanted…and she just practically sang her answer, and I finally had to ask, “Why are you so happy today?” and she said the worship in church was so uplifting. It brings tears to my eyes that I could have been wearing my emotional baggage so tackily on my exterior that I almost missed the opportunity to experience this woman’s warmth and love. She was radiating God’s love and I was acting so pious in my “realist” point of view because I felt like this woman didn’t know what it was like to really have my life experiences…the truth was just the opposite, I was the one missing out. Spending time in worship of God was exactly what my soul and heart and mind needed, and I could do it right then and there.
It is moments like this in the coffeeshop that have floored me, spiritually. Watching people pore over their well-worn Bibles in the corner of the café, searching for God’s message among the pages, searching for more of God’s revelation.
People, fervently, studying the Word like it contains the secret to unlock the next plot for Indiana Jones and the Final Final Crusade Once and For All… I find myself staring at these people, wondering what they are reading and what God is revealing to their hearts. Were they coming across a verse that they had read a million times but never understood?
That loving God, like John Piper says, is cherishing Him, making Him an “experience of our affections, not mere thoughts or behaviors.” Seeing that God is “compellingly beautiful…” in life’s greatest (and worst) experiences. As I would lean on the broom or mop, in sheer and austere oblivious curiosity, I would watch these devoted followers of God who were using our coffeeshop to further the kingdom of heaven and I would think about all the lives I needed to help encourage and change through my writing or spiritual discoveries and I would imagine myself calling friends and family RIGHT THEN, even though it was 7 in the morning to explain to them that JESUS COULD COME BACK TODAY- START LIVING RIGHT…even though I am WELL AWARE that hearing something over the phone from an overzealous Christian friend while driving in the rain in traffic on the way to work is about as real as Santa Claus. Mainly because I know how I feel when someone walks up to the counter during a rush and tells me they see a “spiritual calling” on my life because they have been watching me when I am rushing through grinding coffee, restocking the pastry case, and talking to the customers in line. To the actual guy that said this, I replied, “Well, spiritual callings sure don’t pay much per hour!” I was mainly joking, but the “reality” is that it is hard to combine the spiritual encounters to the worldly experiences without sometimes seeming a little out-of-whack or like I mentioned earlier “overzealous.”
When the real world collides with the spiritual world, there is an amazing explosion that I like to consider the Big Bang and the rubble that is left at our feet oftentimes leaves us tiptoeing around, looking for the small treasures that have been salvaged- what we are left realizing is that the “items” that we may have “worshipped” are melted plastic and metal and paper…while the true treasures are what could not be destroyed in even the strongest of blazes or explosions. I see these Big Bangs all the time at Starbucks…and they bring me to one conclusion for 2010.
The “rubble” at our feet is not worth even half the pennies we waste on it. Just like the expensive coffee and food we sell at Starbucks- it’s good, but it burns in the flame. What we value the most is the experiences and the life-changing relationships that are fostered and rejuvenated and DEEPENED through memories made at places like the coffeeshop.
I have mentioned several times that I try to treat everyone that comes in Starbucks like they are my family. Meaning, I treat them how I want my family to be treated. It has been a paramount discovery how much more patience I can have with someone when I am imagining my mother standing at the counter or my father trying to decide what he wants to drink. I suddenly become engaging and playful, I want to help and I want to encourage.
For 2010, my time with my family has been more precious than the rarest of jewels or the most expensive, exotic trip overseas. Our families are the people that are part of our infrastructure, our understanding of the world, our DNA, these people will always be “in” us. My love for my family, for the memories I get to make with them, and for the memories I get to think about, it propels me on, to another day of fighting the “good fight” for the Father of us all. My ability to cherish my family extends to all the Christian brothers and sisters that I come into contact with every day.
The beginning of a new year is just that- a fresh start to the same life. A mental renewing that allows us to say, I am going to BE that potential that I’ve always had. God would want nothing less for us. And Starbucks doesn’t tolerate second-rate!
