I am very fortunate to have worked for Starbucks for over 9 years now. It is a great company, and I’m very proud to work for it. A couple months ago, Starbucks had a Leadership Conference held in Houston, TX. While Starbucks is a great company, put together over 10,000 store managers in one city for one week, and that could potentially spell trouble.
I was praying right from the start that God would show up. I didn’t have any specifics about that prayer. Just show up God. That’s all.
The last day of the conference, I had 5 hours off. Of course I was going to take advantage of the time and go on a short trip to the ocean, Lord willing, surf too. It was a bit of trouble to figure out how I’d get there, but I had a taxi contact from the concierge at the hotel and that is who I was going with.
His name was Festus. He was from Nigeria. Up until that point, I hadn’t shared the fact that I would be going on sabbatical from Starbucks with any other peers of mine. But I wanted to talk to Festus about Africa. So I did. I told him that I was possibly going to go to Africa on a mission’s trip. That was all it took for Festus to be moved to tell me, “It was a short mission’s trip from a church in America that brought me my first pair of shoes when I was 7.” He then proceeded to tell me to go to Africa for the next hour.
The other manager in the car kept quiet the entire time listening to Festus tell us about his relationship with Jesus. At the end of our ride, my coworker spoke up and said to me, ”I think you were meant to be in this car.”
He was right. They day before I left for Texas, I had been struggling with whether or not I should go on this journey and if it would be effective enough for me to participate. I was challenged to question whether or not being in each country for just one month has any power to be effective. According to Festus, I don't think even a week is necessary to be used by God.
On the way back to the conference, I had an opportunity to share my heart and faith with my fellow store manager and hear some of his story. God was planting seeds one by one. He was showing up. I couldn’t have even imagined how He would show up next just moments later.
The whole week there were rumors that Oprah Winfrey was coming to speak for the final general conference to all 10,000 managers. We knew we had a special guest speaker, so it was very likely true since she was in Houston.
When the speaker was being introduced, you could actually hear everyone hold their breath as Oprah's name was about to be announced. However, the name Reverend Calvin Butts was said instead. You could hear a sigh of confusion.
Who on earth is he?! I imagined that’s what everyone was thinking. A pastor? My heart started to beat just a bit faster as I realized that the next hour all of these people around me might get the chance to hear God speaking to them if they were ready to listen.
Pastor Calvin spoke with such gifted eloquence about 1 Corinthians 13, not mentioning chapter or verse, but spoken right from the Bible. It was like poetry. And he was hysterical! He knew how to relate to people and to help them hear.
It can be so hard to invite people to church sometimes, but somehow the church was invited to Starbucks. I was sitting and listening just like everyone, but in my heart, I was on my knees praying for God to move and thanking Him for showing up. By the end, Pastor Calvin was given a standing ovation. I don’t think anyone missed Oprah from the look of things. I never would have expected God to show up that way.
I think my perception of God is too small.
Ask Him to show up. He'll probably show up instead of Oprah if you are paying attention to the details to notice He’s there.
Somewhere along the road, you may be fortunate to realize it was God who had paved it for you in the first place. He’s always in the details. Begin to notice the threads of an unseen God all around weaving together His beautiful story in your life. If you are not paying attention, you’ll miss out on the blessing it brings when you recognize His presence.
1 Corinthians 13
New International Version (NIV)
13 If I speak in the tonguesa] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
