I’m on time and waiting for the manager but I could not have picked the kind of interview this was going to be. I often need to work a few jobs to pay the bills and so this time it was back to being a barista. The hospitality industry is a real hotchpotch and your kids will no doubt be part of it at one time or other…so eyes open right?! The thing is when it comes to a barista job is that nobody expects a formal interview; you can either make great coffee, fast and consistently or you can’t. I mean after the second page of questions was done I almost lost it when I saw there would be another 2 pages! It was pretty funny, I thought maybe I was in a dream.

But one of the things I was asked stopped me in my tracks…what was it?

‘What’s your greatest achievement?’

Now for a coffee job, you might dig deep and conjure up pictures of that perfect latte or the 12 kilo marathon. I joke. I mean if you’ve made it to world barista champion that’s something I guess…but the local barista who just pumps out consistent coffees that put a smile on everyone’s face each day? Is that daily service…an achievement?

The barista job has become pretty trendy these days. I guess the aim to serve consistently great coffee with a smile and help people enjoy their day. But you are waiting on tables; a lot of it is not particularly glamorous. Emptying the bins. Cleaning the cups. Mopping up after the toddler spills the babycino and treads their sandwich all through the shop. You have to not reacting defensively to demanding customers who walk in with an air of entitlement. These are the less cool parts of being the hipster barista.

Service isn’t rated highly in our world’s ‘achievement recognition scale’. So who would mention service as a great achievement?

What are you hoping to achieve in life? Have you arrived?

I couldn’t think of anything. Heck I’ve done about 4 different career, let’s say ‘progressions’, and I still work in most of them! In fact I couldn’t think of anything for most of the answers as I was just not in the head space for this kind of ‘Spanish inquisition’ for a simple barista job.

So what did I say?

‘Married-20 years; kids-3!’

What a terrible answer! Nothing to do with cafes, coffee or anything relevant to the job.

‘Thanks for coming in; we’ll be in touch,’ (which when translated means, ‘I have no plans to ever call you’)

Why did I do this? I recently had a friend die and it shook me up a bit. I knew she didn’t have long, but you always think there’s time. Then they’re gone and you kick yourself. So I think I was feeling pretty raw and instead of saying something really relevant to the job, I just volcanically blurted this set of numbers out.

As it turns out, it wasn't a bad answer. How so?

"Wisdom is in the house of mourning" (Ecclesiastes 7:4)

How does parenting rate in terms of life’s achievements, after all parenting is a pretty major ‘service career’.

Why parenting is our greatest achievement

Often it’s easy as parents to live in the future. We can look through our kids at the kitchen bench to another destination another goal…or achievement somewhere in our minds eye. It can be daily, habitually or just that ever out of reach big ‘where I want my life/business to be goal’. But what we’re missing is that our biggest achievement…our greatest goal, work and destination is sitting across the kitchen bench.

Oh and don’t forget your hubby or wife. Our marriages are what brought these kids into being.

God orders and gives purpose…he determines what will is worthwhile. Work is certainly worthwhile as God gave us work (Genesis 2). But before man digs the first hole we find marriage and the command to procreate, kids. So an end or goal that precedes work is marriage and kids.

So my answer wasn’t too far off the mark. Won’t get me the job but I’m happy I said it at the time. But it wasn’t the perfect answer.

You see I haven’t arrived. I haven’t finished. It will only be a great achievement if I keep at it. I can’t surpass my wife or my kids with some other destination.

I stay married and love my wife. It will only be a great achievement if my kids and my wife remain my destination, not some other, like they’re in the way or a side show or a channel to something bigger (or smaller).

But parenting doesn’t rate high on the achievers bucket list.

What will be the greatest achievement in your kid’s ministry?

When it comes to kid’s ministry, if that’s you, laboring away in church kids club or scripture ministry or some school venture …what will be your greatest achievement? Often we dream of fancy programs, big numbers, maybe appreciation from our community from the wonderful events we put on. These are all good and part of our work but do they rank as great achievements? No. But people do. So often when we are responsible for a ministry we get caught in the cogs and daily grind of putting stuff together. But the real action, the real destination is not the finished scripts, games, crafts, programs, events or growing numbers or growth of ministries that reach our community. It’s the relationships with the kids with God’s word that really matters. Not the program. Kids might say that was really fun tonight or that lesson was cool. But it’s rare. They certainly don’t go around in school saying ‘great syllabus Sir!’ But they do remember and feel the impact of teachers whose destination is them. The transformation is in the years of faithful teaching of the word of God through personal relationship.

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