I just got back from one of my favorite activities… drinking a cappuccino with one of the brothers in the church. We walked down to the Roosevelt Square Starbucks (only 4 blocks away) in the warmth of today’s Seattle sunshine and talked about what God is doing in our lives. There are few things I enjoy more.
To be honest, the Starbucks experience cannot begin to compare with the Lüneburg experience, or the Freiburg experience (or any one of a host of German cities). Three years ago I might have been sitting with a group of students at an outdoor café in the town square, surrounded by 400-year old buildings, drinking fragrant German coffee and eating Kuchen and thinking to myself, “This is my job… I actually get paid for doing this!” Alas, I have to settle for Starbucks (my apologies, Mr. Schultz). But that’s merely an aside.
What I was thinking about is just how cool it is when the Holy Spirit takes the coffee experience and turns it into something much deeper than simply a meeting of the minds. I’ve been especially concerned lately that so much of my time disappears into activities that are not necessarily fruitful (like blogging, perhaps?). Last week I asked my small group to pray for me that I would really listen to the Holy Spirit about how to spend my time. There are so many things that I am supposed to do… but what are the things that I really should do?
As I pondered that question and asked the Holy Spirit to direct me, this particular brother came to mind. So I asked him to coffee and today felt the wonder of what happens when God sets the appointments. Now, I’m not saying that the everyday, more hum-drum, encounters of my week were unnecessary or that they were less important. But I do love the fact that the Holy Spirit really does want to direct my steps and that when I ask him to, he does it more often. In spite of the fact that I regularly preach that truth, I sometimes forget it.
Steve Pecota - a Pastor in Seattle 