Good Coffee

My wife and I went to a Gaither Homecoming concert Friday night. We had been the year before and watch their concerts on TV all the time, and on the way home my wife commented how she didn’t think she was going to enjoy the live concert a second time around, but confessed the spiritual lift it gave her hadn’t weaned at all. We all need a spiritual lift now and again. What do you do to recharge your spiritual batteries?
Here’s a story that’s been sent to me several times that might lift your spirit. A young woman went to her mother to tell her about her life. It seems she would solve one problem in her life and another would jump up. She didn’t know how she was going to make it and was about to give up on life. Her mother led her to the kitchen where she filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first she placed carrots, the second she placed eggs and in the last, coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners, fished out the carrots placing them in a bowl, then the eggs, placing them in another bowl, then she ladled the coffee out into a cup. “Tell me, what do you see?”, asked the mother. “Carrots, eggs and coffee”, replied the daughter. When asked to inspect them closer the daughter noted that the carrots were soft, the eggs were hard inside and after a sip of the coffee the daughter smiled commenting on the rich aroma and great taste. “What does this mean, mother?” Her mother explained that each object had faced the same adversity, boiling water. The carrots went in the boiling water strong, hard and unrelenting, but they came out soft and weak. The eggs went in fragile, a thin outer shell protecting its liquid center, but came out with its insides hardened. The coffee beans were unique, however. After being in the boiling water, they had changed the water. “Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”
[Romans 8: 18-39] When adversity comes your way are you like the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and disappointment you wilt, become soft and lose your strength? Or maybe you’re like an egg, with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did you have a fluid spirit, then after a hardship or some other trial, though you may look the same outside, your heart has hardened and your spirit has become tough? Why not be like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings it pain. When the water gets hot, it releases its fragrance and flavor. If you’re like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation surrounding you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are the greatest, elevate yourself to another level. How? Trust in God. (v18) I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Through baptism we receive the Holy Spirit of God to abide within us. Is the Spirit there to condemn us? Not at all! (v26) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. (v28) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him… (v31) …If God is for us, who (what) can be against us? Pray to God for wisdom and strength in every situation of life, be it comfortable or uncomfortable. You’re born crying, surrounded by smiles. Die smiling, surrounded by tears. Get right with God.