Yesterday I saw a post in my Facebook feed with a photo of several young men reaching out the service window of a drive-thru to touch the driver. My first thought was that this was an unusual sort of assault caught on someone’s cell phone camera. I was curious, so I read the full post.

Imagine my surprise to learn this was the photo of a spontaneous moment of prayer. The driver of the car, a young woman, had just suffered a terrible loss. The server at the window of the Dutch Bros. coffee kiosk noticed how upset she was and asked what was wrong. When he learned of her pain, he asked if he could pray with her. She agreed, and the other workers in the kiosk had joined them in asking for God’s comfort when the photo was snapped.

This post was followed by dozens of comments from people sharing their own similarly uplifting experiences at Dutch Bros. coffee outlets throughout the West and praising the company and its staff. It was heartwarming to read this long thread of praise. As I kept reading, however, there was one post from a woman whose husband felt he had been disrespected by a Dutch Bros. server. It seems he was playing what I assume was some sort of gangsta rap or other controversial music. I confess to never having heard of the group the woman named. She explained that although her husband liked this music, he was a kind and gentle man. Her husband had told her he was ignored in the service line and he believed it was because the server didn’t like his music. He was offended and vowed to get his coffee elsewhere.

I thought he had probably misinterpreted the situation and perhaps had some sort of chip on his shoulder, since the other comments were uniformly in praise of the customer service from this business. However, it is possible the man was correct and the server was so offended by the music that he didn’t want to serve a person who would play it. I don’t know just how offensive this music might have been, and everyone’s personal taste is different, but it occurred to me that we should all be aware of the image we are projecting when we display our tastes before others. This is true of the music we play, the clothes we wear and the language we use.

It is especially important for Christians. Do we want to provoke a viral post on social media praising us for our kindness and faithfulness to our  beliefs, or do we want others to assume we are the false image we may be projecting when we adopt and display worldly choices?

I wish you all a blessed Resurrection Sunday as we celebrate our living Lord. Hallelujah!