God & Coffee

A group of professional higher education alumni, well established in their careers, were talking at their college reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.  During their visit the conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in their work and lives. 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, some exquisite, telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the alumni had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “Notice that all of the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While its 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 is just more expensive and in some cases even 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 you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee. Your job, your money and wealth and your positions in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life. The type of cup one has does not define, nor change the quality of life a person lives. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God makes the coffee, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Enjoy your coffee!   

Prayer: Lord and Generous God, you give us everything including the coffee.  Let us be blessed with the cracked and old cups and give generously from the cupboards of our lives. AMEN