Barista Banter

My wife and I were leaving Waco, TX and stopped by a Starbucks (a quaint little coffee shop on the way out of town).

When asked for our order, we simply said, "the usual." After being met with a blank stare from the drive-thru speaker, we assumed that the person taking our order was a new employee and we went through our whole order (two tall caramel macchiatos - extra caramel).

While we were waiting on our drinks, the new barista had an hour long conversation with me in five minutes. He asked me about the weather, my activities in Waco, what I thought about the current economic climate, and whether or not I remembered El Nino.


He talked non-stop. By the end of the conversation, we had exchanged phone numbers, social security numbers, and I had given him my facebook password.

I was caught off guard by this man's friendliness. I was not visiting Starbucks for conversation but for some warm caramel goodness. He wanted to talk.

Most remarkably, he seemed as though he genuinely cared about what I was saying in response to his questions.

This incident made me think about my life as a follower of Christ. I do not think that being a Christian means you must play twenty questions with strangers through a drive-thru window.

But I do think that followers of Christ will genuinely care about the pain, the joy, and the lives of those around them.

No matter how strange a stranger is, Christians should care.

Too often, people walk away from encounters with Christians feeling judged and uncomfortable when Christ would have made them feel loved and cared about.