Where to start?

So I just go my first free coffee from Starbucks. Either the employees are confused and think I work here since I am here so often, or this relationship-building thing is starting to pay off…And I don’t mean in the form of saving $1.69. Right now I’m thinking back to the days not so long ago where my week consisted of organizing, planning, picking songs to sing and practice, and other office driven tasks that drove me a little bit crazy. I dreamed of the day when my job could be to just go meet people and spend my entire day with people…. people that may or may not agree with what I believe. So now I’m doing that. I’m at our community pool, I’m at the Starbucks, and I’m going to the bookstore and local restaurants. Anything to meet people. And I find myself trying to put myself back in the situation that drove me crazy. It’s more difficult than I previously thought to just love people. I’m trying to make it into something that at the end of the day can be seen. It’s the same reason I like mowing the grass. I like to see the fruits of my labor. But it’s different with people. First off, to think of people as “fruits of labor” is absolutely appalling. Seeing them as items, or “being in the box towards them,” as the Arbinger Institute would put it isn’t what Jesus had in mind. Secondly, on a more practical level, how can you know when your “labor” has been completed? So at the end of each day, I’m not sure what I’ve “accomplished.” I can only be sure that I will wake up the next day, meet the people God has in store for me to meet, say the things that they need to hear, and hopefully get another free cup of coffee.