A View from St. Arbucks

I am the proud owner of a Starbucks Gold card.  I was reminded of the benefits today.  For the second time this month, when I ordered my Grande Pike I was told it was free.  Okay, I will admit under usual circumstances spending almost three dollars for a cup of joe might seem like a little bit extravagant but for me it is a dose of reality.  You see, a lot of young folks hang out during the day at Starbucks, and it leads to some pretty great conversation.  There is no better place to observe current culture than at a Starbucks. .So, at least one day I week I do my writing at the Starbucks close to our house. 

My routine is always the same.  I order my coffee and find an open spot.  I open up my laptop and set my Bible down next to it.  I also usually have a couple of other books that I have brought along for reference.  I have discovered that having my Bible open next to me is a great door-opener.  I also try to position myself so that I can occasionally make eye contact with those around me.  It can lead to some interesting conversation.

Today was a good example.  The battery on my computer was running low and I was searching for a place to plug it is.  A young man noticed my dilemma and offered to move some of us stuff so I had access to an outlet.  Turns out  he is a pharmaceutical representative who was using the space to make out his weekly report.  He inquired about what I was doing and so became a conversation.

I was working on my new book, Tear down the Silos and Pitch a Tent, on the future of the church in America. It turns out my new friend was a fellow believer who also serves as worship leader at the small church he attends.  As we chatted he began to share his frustration with his generation and his inability to connect with them on matters of faith.   Like me, he is concerned about the future of the church as we struggle to equip young leaders.   He noted that the worship community he is part of has a fair number of young families and that there were a number of young children.  There was a void, however, when it came to single young adults his age. 

We ended up discussing some way to make that happen and we ended up our conversation with a prayer.  I got back to working on my manuscript and he got back to his weekly report.  Hopefully, he was as encouraged as I was. It was just another St. Arbucks encounter. 

We Don't Have to Lie to Our Kids

I know faith in Jesus Christ makes a difference in people’s lives.  I have worked for a hospital chaplaincy service for over twelve years.  One of the first things I discovered is people who know Jesus handle crisis differently.  Even in the face of death, Christians are people of hope.  That is especially comforting for me as an “older adult” who does think end of life issues.  Yes. death can get personal sometimes.

I recently read an article from the Wall Street Journal that caused me to look at the relationship between faith and hope from a whole new perspective.  The article was written by a Jewish therapist named Erica Komisar. Dr. Komisar was speaking religion and spiritual practices in a general way, but her most direct application was to the lives of Children and teens.  She noted that when asked by parents, “How do I talk to my child about death if I don’t believe in God or heaven?”  Her reply is always the same: “Lie.”  Therapist Komisar further notes, “In an age of broken families, distracted parents, school violence and imagination plays a big part in children’s ability to cope.”  In other words, kids need something to believe in.  Faith is that rock.

If we know Jesus, we possess the only “real” hope.  And what is the consequence?  The article noted a 2018 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology that examined how being raised in a family with religious or spiritual beliefs affects mental health.  The result? Children and teens who reported attending a religious service as least once a week scored higher on psychological well-being measurements and had a lower risk of mental illness. 

What a blessings we have in the good news of Jesus.  It is not only a reason to face death with a spirit of hope but it is a confidence we can live with every day.  It is also a faith we can pass on to our children.  That happens not just in the way we verbalize it, but in fact is best taught by them observing the way we handle crisis.  And thank goodness we don’t have to lie when they ask us about heaven.  We can just point them to Jesus and the cross and empty tomb.