Follow the Leader

I was in a Starbucks in Barnes and Noble the other day having some coffee and reading. I really like reading in coffee shops, but I can also get distracted by people. People are fascinating to watch. On this particular day I noticed that the woman who was working the Starbucks was not doing to well. She had her back turned to the register and was reading a book. She only checked to see if anyone was at the counter every few minutes. In fact, there was one guy who must have waited two full minutes before she noticed he was there. He was a young man wearing baggy jeans and chain for his wallet, and he just had an aura of gentleness about him. I guess he was too nice to ask for the lady's attention.

After about half an hour of watching off and on, a young lady came in to interview for a job. To my surprise, the lady who had been working the counter was the manager and took to interviewing the young woman. The manager spoke loudly and it was hard to miss what she was telling the interviewee.

"This job is pretty much non-stop," she bellowed. "You don't have any time to do anything but work."
"Okay, that's fine," the young woman whispered back.
"I'm not sure you understand. This job is go, go, go. Sometimes you'll have five or ten people lined up and you'll be the only one working."

By this time I was starting to wonder if the manager was trying to interview her or scare her into leaving. The interview ended without much more excitement, and once the young woman left the manager sat at one of the tables and took long, slow sips of coffee for a while.

I couldn't believe how different what this manager said about the job was from how she actually modeled doing it. But then I reluctantly remembered that I often do the same thing. I tell people they should pray, but often don't myself. I say that knowing Jesus is the most important thing in life, but I don't always act like it. It was a reminder for me to relentlessly pursue living a life of following Jesus before I call others to do it too.