Cafe Christians

For nearly three pre-dawn hours I sat in my office pondering the finer points of a sermon I was to deliver in a couple days. By my side were a number of essentials in this morning ritual. This is my ritual and while it may seem odd to some it is the manner in which I fully embrace my day and come to grips with it, clearly seeing it as a gift from God.

The first item is a small silver medal, kept in a wooden box in my office, one of the few reminders of a lost loved one. On it is a prayer that I use as my stimulus for prayer. The second item next to me is my pair of shoes. I remove them at least while I study to feel fully connected to the gift of this world. Third, and most obvious, are books, the simple smell of which triggers the want, need and desire to be studious and commune with the saints who wrote most of them, but are no longer among us. Finally, though this is not all that is involved, I have a cup of coffee, which I drinking fully, but slowly.

So, there I am, engaged in this odd scene, refining my sermon like a monk reciting some mantra, and in walks one of the leaders of the church. After a cordial greeting, he makes sure that he tells me “You shouldn’t be drinking that coffee…it is the Devil’s drink.” Well, so much for my focus. Switching gears however, I began to explain to him that I am only doing what religious men have done for years.

You see, coffee was not discovered until around 600 AD in the plateaus of central Ethiopia. At first it was worshipped (praised) for its medicinal qualities and was soon being used by the religious as a catalyst to meditation. Soon, coffee growing had spread from Ethiopia to India and from India to France. Europeans loved the strangely strong but enticing and aromatic brew. However, many warned, due to its origins use among pagans, that it was a threat to “Christianity.” The pope at the time, Clement VIII, decided to first try the drink before he issued a pervasive condemnation of the beverage. The result was not denunciation, but approval. As a matter of fact he blessed the drink and declared it “Christian.” His love for a good cup of “joe,” as some describe it, led to the springing up of coffee and tea houses across Europe, where the greatest of minds would gather and help usher in the “Age of Reason.”

By this time, my aged companion and fellow worker was not necessarily convinced of the Christian value of coffee, but was growing bored, so I cut right to the chase and said, “You shouldn’t be so quick to make assertions you know little about,” and went back to my work. It was a lesson I had reinforced for me time and again as a preacher. A lesson that says, “Don’t believe all you hear and make sure you know what you’re saying before you say it.”

We all do well to heed those words. As James would say, “Be slow to speak, swift to hear.” In this day, heed those words and live or… go ahead and put your foot in your mouth and suffocate in the generally accepted ignorance. The Devil’s drink is not coffee, but a good strong dose of ignorance on loose lips.

Ed

Refusing God's Way of Escape

Holiday shopping can be a very enjoyable task, though often is one that can be very frustrating. What to buy, where to buy it, how to put up with the 50,000 other people trying to get the same thing that you are in a store that seems to only hold 100 people and checkout 10 simultaneously. The experience is also fraught with learning experiences as well. First and foremost are a few lessons in patience. I learned long ago, if you are in a hurry, “Just Say No!” There are other lessons as well, however.

This year while waiting in line to get a last minute gift card at one of the local superstores, I got in line with perhaps the slowest cashier you have ever seen (and perhaps the most frustrated). At one of the busiest times of day her scanner on the counter gave out and would not seem to scan anything. Therefore, after she scanned item number one and it didn’t go, she got the hand scanner (that little gun looking thing that is portable – they ought to give them holsters and teach them quick draw for this time of year) and it worked fine. She then put the scanner away and went back to the stack of stuff the person in front of me was trying to get through the “less than ten items” line. On the second item, the scanner didn’t work either so the woman opened the drawer, got out the hand scanner, scanned the item and then put the hand scanner back. Same thing on the third through fiftieth item… scanner doesn’t work, get hand scanner, put hand scanner back, try counter-top scanner.

The thing that amazed me was not that this was so slow, but the woman’s willingness to continue in something that just wasn’t working and frustrating her to death, especially when she had a perfectly good alternative that she kept ramming back in the drawer. Each and every time she would go to the handheld, but then put it away, as if the other were going to magically fix itself. What a waste of time and energy.

How often does this ring true for us spiritually? We get caught in some desire or want. We begin to bear the consequences. God gives us a way out. However, we just toy with the escape and stay in the frustrating, shame-producing, hurtful, sinful path. How absurd! All the while God gets stuffed back in that proverbial drawer and waits for us to pull him out. Often it is only when it becomes convenient for us, or we, Like King Saul of the Old Testament, have been caught. Yet, God has your solution. Do you want it? He’ll be waiting for you! Don’t waste your time trying to manage the spiritually ineffective and defective. Strive for His perfection by doing His will.