The CEO Who Stood in the Unemployment Line

In 2009, during the worst of the Great Recession, Howard Schultz made a decision that baffled his executive team. The Starbucks CEO walked into a Seattle unemployment office — not to observe, not to film a commercial — but to sit in a plastic chair and listen. He filled out the same intake forms. He waited in the same slow-moving line. Former Starbucks employees were among those waiting, and when they recognized him, they didn't see a billionaire playing dress-up. They saw someone willing to stand where they stood.

Schultz later said he couldn't lead people through a crisis he refused to enter. His board called it unnecessary. His PR team called it a liability. But the people in that room called it something else entirely: real.

This is what happened at the Jordan River. John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching and protested — You should be baptizing me. The sinless One had no need for a baptism of repentance. It made no theological sense. But Jesus waded into those muddy waters anyway, standing shoulder to shoulder with every broken, desperate person who had come to that river carrying the weight of their failures.

And the moment He rose from the water, heaven tore open. The Spirit descended. The voice of the Father thundered across the banks: "This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."

The Almighty does not lead from a distance. He steps into the line with us — and that changes everything.