Enjoy Your Coffee

Ahhh, sunshine. I’m glad to see some of it today for it’s been several gloomy days without it. We sort of take the sun for granite, expecting it to always be there and when the clouds deprive us of it light and warmth we tend to get a little testy and lazy, for this is the time of year when we see less of it and that has a way of wearing us down. Have you ever noticed how we kind of take on the attributes of the day? Cloudy, cold , windy , rainy days have a tendency to pull us down into a depressing mood about everything and too many days of that in a row can really hurt productivity. Then the sunshine breaks through and we sort of pop-up out of our wasteland, wanting to go conquer something. Yes, how the day is dressed is how we dress for the day, but as for me, I’m trying real hard to check my attitude as I enter the day to make it sunny for myself, and others too.
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit an old university professor . The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal; some plain-looking, some expensive and some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee. After all his guests had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, THAT is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it’s just more expensive and in some cases it merely hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and then began eyeing each others cups. Now consider this. Life is coffee, and the jobs, houses, cars, things, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God brews great coffee, but does not make the cups. Enjoy your coffee.”
[2 Peter 1: 3-15] There are those who feel that God has short changed them in this world. Well, I’m afraid they don’t understand that Gods plans for this world are not to make it any better than it is already, but in fact to destroy it. Here, Peter is reminding us who we are. God has provided us with everything we need to live in this world, not to conquer the world, but to escape from it, and it’s evil desires. Once we truly understand that we are first spirit and second flesh, then we will want to “participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world”. When we come to the belief that Jesus is the Son of God and that He has delivered us from the clutches of the evil one, then we need to start concentrating on the promises offered by God. Peter says, we must add to our faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. We can’t always have sunshine in our lives, but I can testify to this: If you work on adding to your faith every day in all that you do, you will have SON shine in your life every day in every way. Enjoy the coffee (LIFE).