Today is National Coffee Day, also known as “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!” So, I am at Starbucks for the first few hours of the day to get things done.
I sat next to a couple of guys having a “small group” study. These guys were Christians. I do this thing where I sit next to Christians talking at coffee shops so I can eavesdrop. (The first step is confessing that I have a problem, right?)
I noticed that these two guys had a third person in their group last week that wasn’t in attendance this week. No big deal, people skip all of the time. (Maybe he saw what he thought were snowflakes falling and decided not to show up?) Well, at the end of their conversation, I discovered why he wasn’t there… they didn’t tell him that they were meeting.
One guy said, “Well, I am more mature spiritually than where he is and I want to go deeper than where he wants to go.” Of course this was said with a “pinch” of superiority and entitlement.
The other said, “He’s a good guy and all, but I don’t particularly enjoy his insights from the Bible.”
All the while, the barista working the drive-thru window was calling most customers by name AND was asking some of them questions about how this one’s baby is doing and how another one likes her new job.
There was laughter, joy, hospitality, freedom, friendship at one place in the coffeehouse and there was cold, ego-centric, unkind, and “unneighborly” behavior at the other.
Green aprons “1” – Small group bible study “0”
Take an extra second and include someone today.
Joe Skillen 
Reblogged this on 2 Morrow / Our Life and commented:
Let’s take a second to read this. Presence affords us the opportunity to witness, self-righteousness damages the neighborly image.