We Christians love coffee. That’s no exaggeration. I cannot tell you how many Christians I’ve run into in coffee shops. While serving God in Alaska, I ran into so many Christian people in the coffee shops there. In Soldotna, there’s this small coffee shop where I spent the majority of my free time. It’s called Kaladi Brothers, and the coffee rocks. But to me, the greatest thing about Kaladi Brothers was not the coffee (which, as I stated previously, rocks), it was the people with whom I engaged in conversation on a daily basis.
It was odd actually. I spoke on a weekly basis during the evening service for the church I was serving, and I would often craft my sermons on a small table in that shop. I’d sit there with my bible open, typing away at a Word document, when someone would walk up to me and strike up conversation, solely based on the fact that I had a bible.
Majority of the people that I would speak to had a relationship with Jesus Christ.
So why is that?
Coffee is a thinker’s drink. Period. Coffee shops are the perfect environment for deep, meaningful conversation. I cannot think of a better place to have a conversation with someone besides a coffee table at a coffee shop.
Lots of Christians tend to enjoy deep, meaningful conversation. They’ve found that there’s more to life than being busy. It’s nice to stop every once in awhile and reflect on the glory and beauty of the life that you live for Him.
That being said, I simply cannot understand why people are so dead set on drive-thru coffee. For me, coffee is something to be savored and enjoyed. I have to at least walk inside and chat it up with the baristas. There’s a particular coffee shop I that visit very often in my hometown that I absolutely love. I am there so often, that most of the staff know me. I have to walk inside and chat with them. I cannot stand the idea of drive-thru coffee, where the only interaction you get with people inside is the quick exchange on money for coffee.
In Alaska, part of the reason why I only see Christians in there is that pretty much everyone else up there is too themselves and get almost know interaction with other people outside of their immediate family. If that’s the case, why are they going to walk in a coffee shop and converse with people when they can just drive up to a little java-to-go joint stuck on the side of the highway?
Those things are EVERYWHERE in Alaska. People up there just really aren’t into the coffee shop thing. The coffee shop I spoke of earlier (Kaladi Brothers) closed at 7 on most days, and 9 on the weekends. That’s early. Here in Lafayette, Louisiana, most of the coffee shops close at 11pm on weekdays. Midnight on weekends. Most of us are coffee shop people, but the drive-thru thing is catching on.
As Americans become more and more obsessed with cramming as much as they can into a single day, the experience provided by drive-thru coffee becomes sufficient and takes the place of the social interaction provided by actually walking into the shop.
This is a huge problem. Coffee was made to be a social drink, so why are we trying to take the “social” out of it?
In a day and age where a lot of social interaction occurs over the air via cell phones (both calls and SMS ), I suppose it’s easy to pass on the blame for our decreasing personal interaction (in other words, face-to-face) with people.
Let’s all slow down from the drive-thru, go-go-go, non-stop way of life. Let’s all take time to smell our coffee before we engulf it.
~Kyle
