Grace at Starbucks

I was standing in line at Starbucks and noticed hair clipping on the shirt in front of me. “Where’d you get your hair cut” I asked. When he turned around I noticed a cross around his neck. Later he offered me a seat while I was waiting for my order. When I asked him about the cross he said it was from an old roommate. He said he grew up going to church but hadn’t been back for years.

As a sexually active, gay, HIV-positive Latino he had found the church of his youth an unsafe place to worship. Though he says he’s a happy person, he confessed that there’s a missing piece spiritually in his life. When I asked him what his concept of grace was, he had no answer. That gave me the chance to share the gospel with him and introduce him to the grace offered in Jesus Christ.

Like many in Las Vegas, he is longing for a place where he can be honest and yet still feel acceptance. The LGBT community, though valuing honesty in one area, has proven to be an unsafe place for him to be honest in other areas. I told him that as humans we all long to be fully known and fully and loved, but often believe we have to choose one or the other. What Christ offers us is a way to be both. We exchanged information before he left so we could stay in touch.

What my new friend is longing for is nothing short of God’s grace. Please pray that he finds what he longs for.