At our ChickFilA, we have 4 big coffee urns..3 for regular coffee, and 1 for decaf.  They are very ordinary, black on black design, with a coffee gauge and timer on the ordinary plastic top.  They get used over and over, day in and day out, and no one pays a whole lot of attention to them.  We use 3 at front counter, and a regular one at drive thru.  This saves a lot of steps and time for the drive thru workers (me!) during morning rush.

However!  The other morning when I was getting the front of the store up and running for the day, I took one urn out of the coffee maker and placed it on the counter to fix decaf in another.  And of course moments later my elbow caught it and knocked it to the floor!  The sad coffee urn that I picked up had a cracked face, and when I tried it the gauge didn’t work anymore.  So we had to put it away till repairs were made.  No big deal, right??

Wrong!  That first morning I took one of the 2 front regular coffee urns to drive thru.  Unfortunately, the front kept running out of coffee, so they took it back!  That meant that every time drive thru needed coffee, someone had to walk to get it, slowing us down..so we took the urn back!  And so it went, fighting over urns every day until the other one got repaired and order was restored.

So what’s the point? Just this…some days I feel just like that black coffee urn, and I am not alone!  It’s so easy to feel ordinary and/or unappreciated.  We feel used and reused over and over again, being constantly drained by those just seeking satisfaction for themselves (the urn) and it’s hard to see ourselves as being special or unique (black on black) in our daily lives.  We can even get into the rut of thinking that we’re not needed (being 1 of 4).  

And yet!  Remember what happened when I broke one?  It was hard!  It was inconvenient!  And it caused a slow down in service and customer satisfaction. It was also immediately repaired, because it’s absence was such a hardship!  Which is absolutely true for each of us, even if we don’t always believe it.  God uniquely designs every one of us at conception, and has a role for us that no one else can do.

And yet.  We get beaten up every day by the world, our jobs, etc and we forget our specialness and our worth.  I see this every day at my window whenever I compliment a customer’s clothes, hair, or accessories (yes, even men!)  This look comes over their faces like “wow..me?  Really?” and they look amazed that they received a compliment. I waited on a man just today who is a systems analyst and I told him that was great.  He said that he really only sat in front of a desk all day, but I told him I was impressed with his smarts!  He looked much happier when he left, and all because he was reminded of his worth!

So…the next time you feel unappreciated, remember our coffee urns…and even if no one else tells you, remind yourself that you are making a difference.  It will carry you through a rough day anytime!