“…let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 5:16.)
Breathe is a Wichita group yearning to bring ourselves and others closer to God. Please be inspired by these modern day “Acts” and lets go out and live our faith today!
I ordered a Naked juice and handed the barista a stack of $20 bills wrapped in a piece of paper. The paper said,
“(quiet) Please use this $100 to buy people’s coffee/snacks until it runs out.
—
Do not tell anybody who or why this money was given. Thanks! Shshhhh!!!”
On the way to this Starbucks, having the money and note in my pocket, Cliff called. While we prayed for it I realized that I was too excited for the wrong reasons. After the call I turned my will to God and he said, “liquify your money. Make it ready for me to use in any way, despite what you have planned for it.” So I resolved that if something jumped out at me before I handed over the money, I would be flexible and spend accordingly.
But the money, liquid in my mind was intact when I gave it to the barista. She looked down, read the note and nodded and I started to walk away with my Naked Protein Smoothie. She caught me and asked, “do you want your change?”
I smiled at her, finding myself saying “NO, Duh!” with my eyes. But I caught myself and smiled to cover my defensive nervousness. She nodded again and I sat down and opened my computer to write and pray.
I saw a big black guy coming towards my seat from the corner of my eye. He stopped directly in front of my table, looking down at me. I looked up at him. It was not a big black guy! It was MITCH in a black shirt! “Dude, Mitch! How are ya?!”
He shook my hand and we exchanged a knowing glance.
“I called Cliff and he told me about what you were doing. This is awesome. Sorry but I can’t stay long.”
“Did you get a coffee?”
“No, I probably should, shouldn’t I?”
He came back with his coffee and said, “she just said that some guy gave a hundred dollars to be used for people’s coffee.”
We talked and prayed for each other. “…amen.”
“Wait!” I said. Cliff and I have found that after spiritual highs we usually fall down hard. So we prayed for a fortress around us to deflect temptations and sin and keep this momentum going forward. We shook hands, smiled that knowing smile and he left.
The barista came over to me and leaned down. I looked up at her and then she said, “You’ve made a lot of customers happy tonight. They want to know his name and I say he wants to remain anonymous.”
A couple of girls sat down at a table 5 tiles away and I heard them laughing. “Haha! That’s cool! I want to go up there again and ask if I can get more!” one of them half joked.
Half an hour later the barista came over to me again and leaned down, smiling. “Some of them don’t know what to do. One lady bought a pound of coffee and—well now there’s only like 11 dollars left, but– They want to know who it is so they can go give him a hug!”
I stuttered for a moment and then said, “Tell them to pass it on to someone else.”
“Ok. Um. . .” now she stuttered, “Why are you doing this? Do you have some purpose behind it or something?”
I shook my head, “No. . . um. Just. . . me and a couple friends wanted to do it.”
People are laughing all around me. the group of baristas behind the register are throwing their heads back, laughing at something and patting each other on the back. The people at the front of the line all have a moment of bewilderment, and then look around, smiling. Always smiling.
‘Liquify your hearts,’ I think God wants to say. “Be ready for the movement I want to make with them. Be flexible and listen to me. I will use you at the front lines of of my battle to give life to old hearts. I will bring you living water. I will make you smile. I will make your smile contagious, i will quench your thirst.
Raw Spoon
