Thursday, August 31, 2006
just a cup of coffee?
8/23/06
I woke up early this morning, not just early for me, early by regular standards, 5:00. I read for a couple hours, hoping that I’d be able to sleep again after than, but to my dismay, was actually ready to get up at 7 am. Not knowing what to do with myself, two sleeping friends in my apartment, I quietly got ready and snuck out of the house.
With no particular end in mind, I found myself here at a park (whose name I haven’t bothered to notice in the 10 plus times I’ve been here) Sitting down at a bench looking over the water with McDonald’s hotcakes and coffee. (Yes I am an American, and I’m really better at it than I’d like to admit.) Although I’m not all that used to going through the drive through for breakfast… which is how I forgot to ask for creamer or sweetener for my coffee. Its been a long time since I tried to drink coffee plain, like a good old farmer.
That’s who I think of when I think of black coffee. Old farmers. They are some of the only people really tough enough to genuinely like it that way. My generation is just a bit too sissy for that.
But God brought to my mind such a sweet memory of coffee, like the value of a cup of cold water can mean so much in the name of the Lord… When I was 16 and on a trip with Teen Missions to Trinidad and Tobago, we were working quite hard physically for a month, much harder than any of us had worked before, and personally since. Building a building for a church. We stayed in pastor Gerald Samaroo’s house that month. All of us teenagers, none of us really drank coffee. But for Pastor G…. we all suddenly loved coffee. Every day he would invite two different kids to join him for a special treat, Trinidad coffee with mounds of sugar and creamer. That we enjoyed it so much probably had something to do with the fact that we were getting a break from working in the mud/sun. It really was so special to us though.
The hard work, really it was very fulfilling, and definitely good for us… but something about that special break. In a time when I thought I was very grown up, it made me feel like a little kid, and full of joy at being one. That’s good for anybody, I don’t care who you are or how old you are.
And I know I am part of a generation and culture that is known for valuing comforts and rewards more than hard work and effort and we often times are accused of looking only for immediate satisfaction and avoid the journey/suffering/commitment that could be involved. But… while I do acknowledge that hard work and endurance and pain and suffering have value and purpose, I also believe that I serve a God who likes to pull me aside and sit me down for syrupy coffee sometimes in the middle of the journey.
He wants to remind me of his love for me! And it is that love that gives me joy in my work and in my life. It is his love that compels me. It is his love that is my purpose.
I think that’s part of what God was doing in Nehemiah 8:10 when in the middle of their work, he called them aside that they would be reminded to enjoy him, and he renewed their joy.
I woke up early this morning, not just early for me, early by regular standards, 5:00. I read for a couple hours, hoping that I’d be able to sleep again after than, but to my dismay, was actually ready to get up at 7 am. Not knowing what to do with myself, two sleeping friends in my apartment, I quietly got ready and snuck out of the house.
With no particular end in mind, I found myself here at a park (whose name I haven’t bothered to notice in the 10 plus times I’ve been here) Sitting down at a bench looking over the water with McDonald’s hotcakes and coffee. (Yes I am an American, and I’m really better at it than I’d like to admit.) Although I’m not all that used to going through the drive through for breakfast… which is how I forgot to ask for creamer or sweetener for my coffee. Its been a long time since I tried to drink coffee plain, like a good old farmer.
That’s who I think of when I think of black coffee. Old farmers. They are some of the only people really tough enough to genuinely like it that way. My generation is just a bit too sissy for that.
But God brought to my mind such a sweet memory of coffee, like the value of a cup of cold water can mean so much in the name of the Lord… When I was 16 and on a trip with Teen Missions to Trinidad and Tobago, we were working quite hard physically for a month, much harder than any of us had worked before, and personally since. Building a building for a church. We stayed in pastor Gerald Samaroo’s house that month. All of us teenagers, none of us really drank coffee. But for Pastor G…. we all suddenly loved coffee. Every day he would invite two different kids to join him for a special treat, Trinidad coffee with mounds of sugar and creamer. That we enjoyed it so much probably had something to do with the fact that we were getting a break from working in the mud/sun. It really was so special to us though.
The hard work, really it was very fulfilling, and definitely good for us… but something about that special break. In a time when I thought I was very grown up, it made me feel like a little kid, and full of joy at being one. That’s good for anybody, I don’t care who you are or how old you are.
And I know I am part of a generation and culture that is known for valuing comforts and rewards more than hard work and effort and we often times are accused of looking only for immediate satisfaction and avoid the journey/suffering/commitment that could be involved. But… while I do acknowledge that hard work and endurance and pain and suffering have value and purpose, I also believe that I serve a God who likes to pull me aside and sit me down for syrupy coffee sometimes in the middle of the journey.
He wants to remind me of his love for me! And it is that love that gives me joy in my work and in my life. It is his love that compels me. It is his love that is my purpose.
I think that’s part of what God was doing in Nehemiah 8:10 when in the middle of their work, he called them aside that they would be reminded to enjoy him, and he renewed their joy.
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