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where the church gets it wrong...starbucks and jesus

I desire open, honest, and nonjudgmental communication from all people and all views and all ideas. The words of my posts are simply my own thoughts on how the church* can fully be operational in Love.


If you know anything about me personally, you realize that I love Starbucks. like can barely drive by without stopping love it. like help me lord love it. like they know me by name love it. Get the picture? So, when the day after Halloween arrived and their red cups appeared, I was ecstatic. Why? Because if you know anything about me personally, you realize that I love Christmas. like can barely wait until Black Friday to put up my tree love it. like leave decorations up until Valentines love it. Get the picture?

I love Starbucks and Christmas. I didn't look at my cup of piping hot deliciousness to see if it said 'Merry Christmas' or 'Happy Hanukkah' or 'Happy Holidays' or 'Bah Humbug'. Why? Because I just don't care. I am more concerned with forming relationships with others than I am with insisting they follow Jesus, or any religion for that matter. (and yes, I have had personal discussions with my baristas. I've heard about their weddings and tattoos and children and other jobs and they've heard about my children and tattoos and love of loving others)

This is where the church gets it so wrong. They are so focused on "saving" everyone that they have forgotten what Jesus is focused on - us, me and you and the guy down the street who denies him and the lady who blames him for her troubles, every single one of us. He doesn't care about what a red cup says. He doesn't care what greeting is given at a store. He cares about whether people know love, feel love, share love.

Be the love, the rest will follow. Or at least, that's the way I interpret his words.

If you truly believe that there is a war on Christmas, on Jesus and christianity, than try this. March right into Starbucks, buy that plain red cup of joe, say 'Merry Christmas' to your wonderful barista, smile brightly, hand them a nice, big tip. Believe me, that says a whole lot more than a red cup printed with Merry Christmas ever would!



 




 *When I say "church", I mean as a whole entity, not necessarily one denomination or actual building, etc.




other posts in this series:
racism
mental illness
us vs them
loving yourself












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