He was talking about getting botox. I frowned from across the room and said, "why?"
"I want a change, I want to recreate myself. "

"Let it come from the inside out, don't just fix your appearance."

"I've tried, I've been dry three years and there is still nothing. It is the same."

I was wiping off the espresso machine and his words were ringing bells in my ears. 5 minutes later I sat across from him and said. "why is nothing working"

For the next 40 minutes in between grabbing coffees and ringing up checks, he poured out his heart. I spoke little but I prayed.
"I am so empty, inside their is nothing. I am dead. I am so competitive and yet it amounts to nothing. "

"And I saw that all achievements and all labor spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Ecclesiastes 4:4

I am a young woman and know that it is not my place to counsel this man. I listened silently and then stood up and told him "Truth exists, I know this, if you search you will find it".

I learn daily in my job that people are full of stories, they long to share, and questions that wake them up in the night. we serve a God who knows their names.
Pray for this man if you think of it, and please think of it. He lives in a wall of pride, and raises children named anger and frustration.