Whoops….

Do you remember Monday? Rainy. Gray. Kind of a text book Monday?

I was out running a bunch of errands. I pulled into Target and realized I really didn’t have any reason to go in the store. I think the car just turned in out of habit. So rather than waste a trip through the parking lot, I decided to grab a coffee from the Starbuck’s drive thru.

If you are thinking less of me at this point, please reserve judgment. It gets worse.

I ordered a middle-sized regular coffee. And yes, I said “middle-sized” through the microphone outside the car window because I am just kind of rebellious and have never learned their trendy names for small, medium and large.

At the window, the guy handed me my coffee but refused to take my gift card. He smilingly informed me that the car ahead of me had paid for my coffee.

This is the part where I realize many of you will be thinking what on earth I am doing sending you any attempt at Christian encouragement each week.

I had several thoughts bombard me at once.

Those who know me well also know that I am capable of multiple simultaneous thoughts. So in no particular order, here is what happened in the next few seconds of my life:
1. I looked at the car pulling away from the Starbucks entrance frantically trying to figure out if I knew them and attempting to wave a “thank you” of sorts
2. Somewhat like the people on the Reader’s Digest giveaway commercial, I stammered “You’re kidding! Really? Why would they DO that?” with a goofy grin on my face
3. I thought maybe I should buy the coffee for the person behind me
4. quickly followed by the thought – What if they ordered 5 jumbo latte-specialty drinks and I use up all of my entire stash of gift cards, and don’t have enough cash to cover the cost?

And in all of this flood of thoughts and emotion and fear of embarrassment to the friendly coffee guy, I just thanked him, pulled forward and tucked my card back in my wallet.

Yep….I am that person.

So you won’t hear a heartwarming story about the string of coffee purchases that went on and on some rainy day at Starbucks Decatur. I broke the chain.

My free cup of coffee was nice, but my missed opportunity to be a part of something bigger than me left a bad taste in my mouth.

I am kind of looking forward to a second chance at the drive up window soon!
God bless you (and me) to respond quickly when we are surprised by grace! And if you are behind me in line that day, well, you are welcome =0)

Blessings! Laura <3