The Venti Minion

Today I want to talk about being thankful again.  I am thankful that a certain place exists.  It is Starbucks.  Now don't laugh to much yet.  See I am thankful for Starbucks but not just for the drinks which are good.  I am thankful for the life lessons I have learned at Starbucks.  "Yeah right," you say, "You just like the drinks!"  Not so fast.  I really have learned a lot from going to Starbucks.

 I do like to go to Starbucks. I go there at least once a day and get at least one Venti Earle Grey tea with cream and artificial sweeteners. It's sort of my breakfast and I do this every day after I work out. In fact, I love to mess with my personal trainer by telling him that right after my workout I am headed to Starbucks.

Well, eight years ago, I was very jealous of the skinny people who would come in there with their workout stuff on. They looked like what I wanted to look like. They were in shape, they were happy, they were skinny and I was jealous. I wanted to look like that but I didn't think I ever would. Now fast forward three years. It was a cold day and I had to wear running tights and a long sleeve shirt. I had on a cap and gloves plus my running shoes and I weighed 185 pounds. As I stood in line at the Starbucks, I thought to myself, "Oh My God! I've become one of them!" It was a great feeling.  Be careful how you judge people.  If you judge someone, you risk becoming just like them.

This certainly worked out good in my life but there are other areas where I have been very judgmental of people and I had to repent for being so.  See I judged my ex-wife and even some other people I know and it was never my place to be judge.  I realized that I was judging certain areas of their lives without judging my own life.  When I looked into my life, there were parts I liked and parts I didn't.  As I took a deeper look into some of the parts I didn't like it made me realize that I have no time to judge others.  I have to spend my time getting myself straightened out in those areas.  What areas of your life are you critical of other people?  Do you sit around at lunch with your friends talking about girls or guys and saying things that aren't nice?  Make a decision to say nice things and do nice things to others.  You will be glad you did.

There was another time at Starbucks that affected me a little more deeply and I was reminded of this the other day while I was out walking. See, one morning about five years ago, I went into Starbucks to get my usual drink. At that time it was a Venti Carmel Light Frappacino.  I was standing in line waiting and I was sort of in a bad mood. I was grumbling to myself about my bad run time from that morning. It was nothing that you would have known from looking at me but I was a little aggrivated because my time was slower than I wanted. As I stood there, I saw a man sitting in a wheel chair. He seemed to be having a pretty good day from what I remember. But here is what hit me like a jack hammer. The Lord said something on the inside of me. He said, "You see that man sitting there? He would kill to be able to do what you just did this morning. Now stop your complaining!" Imagine how ungrateful I was.  There I was thinking about a slow run while looking at a man who couldn't walk.  I repented right then. Because of all I have been through in the last couple of years, my run times have gotten much slower but I am so thankful that I can run today.

What are the areas in your life where you are grumbling and complaining? If you look around, there is someone sitting in a wheel chair in that very area you are grumbling about.

And that's another Opinion of the Minion