A personal touch is the last thing you\u2019d expect at a fast-food drive-through window, right? Well, it\u2019s what you get at the McDonald\u2019s on National Road in Columbus, Indiana, where I live. Something extra comes with your coffee and Egg McMuffin. You get a friendly \u201cHow are you today?\u201d from a young man who takes time to really listen to your answer and offer a word of kindness, encouragement, even prayer, if that\u2019s what you need. And you get a smile so genuine and full of joy that you drive off feeling lighter and happier yourself. I go there as much for the smile as for the food.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all courtesy of 25-year-old Joseph Embry. In the five years he\u2019s worked the window, he\u2019s built quite a following in our town. To his regulars he\u2019s our ambassador of blessings. But ask Joseph about his gift for lifting people\u2019s spirits, and he\u2019ll say he wasn\u2019t always so positive. His childhood wasn\u2019t exactly idyllic. His father abandoned him when he was a toddler. He had a loving mother and stepfather, but their life in Anderson, Indiana, was a struggle to make ends meet. Jobs were scarce, money was tight and the family moved often. Joseph fell behind at school, never settling in. He was angry, \u201calways looking for a fight,\u201d he says. He dropped out his junior year and drifted, picking up some factory work, but nothing lasted for long.<\/p>\n
One Sunday afternoon, his stepdad had it out with him. \u201cMy dad sat me down and said, \u2018When are you going to get serious with God? He wants to get serious with you.\u2019 Somehow that got through to me. What was God trying to say to me? Why didn\u2019t I listen?\u201d<\/p>\n
About that time Joseph snagged the job at McDonald\u2019s. It could have been just another minimum-wage dead end, but Joseph decided God had a personal mission for him. \u201cI started asking people how they were,\u201d Joseph says. \u201cIf they were grumpy, I\u2019d say something funny and make them laugh. If they seemed down, I\u2019d give them encouragement. Why not try to cheer them up?\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph has an uncanny way of recognizing customers\u2019 voices through the tinny drive-through speaker and remembering the little details that make each unique. There\u2019s the woman who likes an extra granola packet with her yogurt parfait and the state trooper who takes extra milk and sugar with his coffee. Joseph\u2019s interest in them goes deeper than their order. How\u2019s work? How are their kids, the rest of their families? Last year one regular confided in him about making the tough decision to move her mother into a nursing home. To this day, he always asks how her mom is doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pray for people when I hear they\u2019re going through something,\u201d Joseph says. No need is too big or too small. He prays for the woman who lost her child in an accident. He asks for good weather for the landscaping crew in the pickup truck. He prays for the little blind dog who rides with one of his regulars and for a customer undergoing cancer treatment. \u201cDon\u2019t give up,\u201d he says. \u201cHave a blessed day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes customers are short-tempered. \u201cI try to be understanding,\u201d he says. \u201cYou never know what someone\u2019s up against.\u201d These days part of his job is helping new employees learn the ropes. But his secret to success\u2014and happiness\u2014goes way beyond the drive-through. As Joseph told me one morning when I stopped for coffee, \u201cGod wants us to love one another. That\u2019s all you\u2019ve gotta do.\u201d You can supersize that!<\/p>\n