God hand blends us to serve
I have a confession to make … I enjoy a good cup of coffee. As with most things, too much coffee is not good for you, but in moderation it does no harm.
I will also confess that I’m no connoisseur, but I do prefer some coffees over others. I don’t know the difference between Jamaican Blue Mountain, Hawaiian Kona or any other specialty blend. I might be able to tell them apart, but that would be the extent of my ability. I couldn’t tell which one was a “better” blend; I just know that I like some blends more than others.
In Canada, the coffee shop is the social equivalent of the British pub. It’s where people gather for a beverage and a bite over some conversation. I have been frequenting one chain for more than 30 years, I won’t identify it by name, but it has brought the expression “double-double” (meaning double cream and double sugar) into broad usage and it is not four-bucks.
Coffee is made from the roasted and ground beans of the Arabica or Robusta coffee plant. There are many other varieties of coffee but only these two groups are used as many of the others are toxic. Within the Arabica and Robusta groups are hundreds, perhaps thousands of sub-varieties making the selection of coffee virtually unlimited, certainly too varied for my undiscerning taste buds.
As I emptied yesterday’s filter basket and started to make a fresh pot for the day, I meditated on coffee beans.
Coffee beans truly are an amazing thing. You can make a cup of coffee just by soaking the beans in cold water. It would be weak and flavorless, but it would still be coffee.
Or you can roast and grind a bean blend that is to your taste fresh every day and brew with boiling hot water. Same coffee and same water, but what a difference in the results. Just the application of some heat combined with a little crushing and grinding make all the difference in the world.
That’s the way God works in our lives too. Oh He can and will use a hardened heart like Pharaoh or Judas Iscariot, but what a difference when He works with a willing heart. Yes we’ll undergo the heat from the trials of life. Yes we will be ground and shaped. When that happens though, the sweetest of all brews results.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-24 NET
Now God doesn’t grow us all in the same place, nor does He heat or grind us all in the same way. Different coffees from different regions, combined, produce differing flavor coffees. It is the same with us. He chooses us, heats us and grinds us to make us the best possible “brew” with our lives.
Are you going to work with Him to allow the most delightful cup or will you fight Him all the way and end up with a weak flavorless cup?
Until next time, may you learn to understand the trials of life are managed by God and give thanks.
Kevin