Today’s list is short. It’s one thing. One thing I’ve learned, working at Starbucks. I’ve learned other things there, many things in fact — about people, both co-workers and customers, both good and bad. But one thing stands out, starkly and specifically, and it comprises today’s “list”:
1. People feel entitled. The Starbucks standard is three minutes, start to end – a customer should be able to sip their drink within three minutes of placing their order. People expect it, both Starbucks employees and Starbucks customers. It’s the standard. I see it, the mindset: “I deserve my drink in three minutes or less.” Did Starbucks help create this environment, or does it simply reflect it? My take: Starbucks has exacerbated, but mostly reflects, the fact that people feel entitled. Our culture seethes entitlement.
It’s our right.
I’ve seen the underbelly of our culture, in a coffee shop, where people get angry and snappy when their drink isn’t ready quickly enough. We think we deserve so many things. A break. A treat. An opinion. A vote. A choice. Respect.
Starbucks has taught me that last one. About myself.
It irks me — a lot — when people come through our drive-thru, on their cell phone, and apologize to the person they’re talking to. They don’t look at me, and it’s like I’m not even human.
I deserve better than this, I think. I’m a person, first of all. And I’m working on a Master’s degree. I’m probably smarter than this jerk who won’t even say hello through their car window.
It hit me the other day, walking away from our drive-thru window, and grumbling about the jerks on their cell phones.
What do I deserve?
I would say nothing, but that’s a lie. I deserve something — Death. Hell. Being burned forever because I rebel against a holy God.
God saved me though, out of my condemnation. And I’m mad because someone is talking on their cell phone while I wait on them at a coffee shop.
He was entitled, and he bore the cross.
I pray that I might have the same mindset, which was that of my Lord, and may I exude that mindset to others, that they would be driven to the cross where God crushed the Entitled One.
