Serving up Christmas

Do you remember my Mark Batterson quote for the year?

Change of Place + Change of Pace = Change of Perspective

That happened — again — to me today sitting in Starbucks. I have recently been reading Richard Foster’s “Freedom of Simplicity,” an old book, but a deep and good one. Call me crazy, but reading about the spiritual discipline of simplicity has really helped me keep Christmas in perspective! This morning I was waiting for a friend, and arrived about thirty minutes early, so I sat and read my book at the Starbucks counter. It’s the same Starbucks counter that taught me so much about leadership in this post.

Today I learned about servanthood, and giving out of a desire to love. “Freedom of Simplicity” was busy telling me that when we leave our expectations and greed behind, we are free to serve and love with singleminded devotion. Our hearts are clear. In the midst of that, I watched the baristas serving drink after drink. Now usually — being on the other side of the counter — I think about asking for a drink, ordering food. And rude customers, of course, are intensely irritating if you care about people. Today, however, I focused on the simple act of service…of a barista happily making a drink to please the customer, and feeling like they have done a good job when they deliver their coffee. Do these baristas – all of whom I know by name and yet have scant details about their lives – do they know they are participating in the act of creation and service and giving? Does it make them happy to do for the customers what God does for us? “Look, I created this for you.” In that moment, being a barista seemed a holy occupation.

Another book I am reading, “Cloister Walk” by Kathleen Norris, tells about life in a Benedictine Monastery. During one national convention some of the monks petitioned to serve food family style, at a table, again, as opposed to the new buffet lines they were currently using to serve food. Why? Because the act of serving each other food, one to the other, put a different perspective on the meal. Each monk was served by the one to his side, and did not take the food for himself. Something was lost, they said, when monks began to go through line and just take whatever they wanted, however much they wanted. There was a spiritual application of sitting and serving one another a simple meal.

So there was my change of perspective: serving one another as an act of spiritual  discipline and gratitude. I know..I’ve heard it before, too. It’s not profound, or deep or revolutionary. But it did cast the Christmas hurry and scurry in a different light. What an amazing gift: to be able to give.

Tagged as: barista, Christmas, Cloister Walk, Coffee, Freedom of Simplicity, Kathleen Norris, Mark Batterson, Richard Foster, service, Starbucks