Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Moccachi-know

I'm sitting here drinking a coffee.

As I write this, my wife will be getting up and going to work in 10 minutes. Time to take her morning coffee up, so she can have hers in bed. I euphemistically call it 'breakfast in bed', but it's not really, is it... Considering that shortly afterwards, usually around 7am, she comes downstairs and makes our porridge. That's breakfast. If I'm honest...

Anyhow, back to coffee....

We are by no means coffee connoisseurs. We usually enjoy a quick cup of quite remarkable Nescafé, instant, with trim milk. My lovely wife even requires a teaspoon of Cadbury's hot chocolate to enhance it even further. I hear the collective gasp of shock from those who are dismayed at our treatment of the holy coffee bean as we speak. I ask for your forgiveness, please find it in your heart to accept those of different coffee persuasions than your own.

I honestly forget how much a cup of coffee costs these days. I hear through our reliable media that the cost is going up! Oh no! How will we survive! We generally have the aforementioned luxurious instant once, maybe twice in the mornings, and an excursion to a café for an insidiously overpriced cup of Java is a special treat for us... I can't remember the last time we went, possibly a couple of months ago, to celebrate the miracle of our first child being in Cat's tummy. (Not MY tummy as everyone seems to joke... haha very funny *punch to the face*).

Speaking of special treats, finally getting to the point, we bought some moccachino sachets the other day. This is the coffee we are drinking this morning. As you follow the directions and pour the hot water into the cup, whilst stirring, there magically appears to be hundreds of small bubbles on the creamy top of the coffee. My first though was 'wow, there's more bubbles than stars in the night sky!' I wondered if God was enjoying a coffee while he created the infinite and eternal universe... :P. As I sat and stared at my coffee, contemplating this and other random things about life, a thought crossed my mind.

There's lots of bubbles. But what if I look closer? ... So I lifted the cup closer to my face... All of a sudden it seemed as if there were thousands more bubbles! Wow! Excited by this, I looked closer again... So many more bubbles, again... Excitement rose! To my feeble human mind they seemed infinite! Shall I dare to look even closer? I hesitated... I decided to take the plunge. Here we go! 

Oops! Too close, I went cross eyed and ruined everything.

Oh well, tomorrow I will try again :)


But this got me thinking about God, we can sit there every morning and admire His handiwork, the seemingly infinite work of His hands and be amazed at it. We can enjoy the smells, the tastes, the way it makes us feel, and most importantly, the knowledge that spending time with this cup of coffee will refresh us, wake us up and get us ready for the day ahead. It is a good thing to do, and most of us will always find time for a coffee in the mornings, no matter how busy we are. 

But if we look closer at our coffee, which takes a choice to lift the cup closer, to make the effort to see, to be still and know what we are looking at, we will always be amazed at what we find. There is always much, much more than we can see. If we would only be still and listen and make the choice to investigate further and submit to these promptings to 'experience more', who knows what we will find. The initial amazement from having a coffee in our hands could very well fade into a distant memory as we discover more and more wonderful things. As we get to know our 'Cup of Coffee' even closer and more intimately.

Eventually, we will get to that point where our understanding reaches it's human limits, where things become unclear and we have to trust that we will be OK. Even the smartest person who has ever lived will never understand everything! At that point of going cross-eyed, life is a lot easier and enjoyable when you know that Someone is holding you in their hands. Carrying you. In a way, we are the cup of coffee in His hands, that He enjoys and 'loves' every day. I am so thankful for this!


We are His special treat, crafted by Him, with 'The Best Barista of All Time' award hanging behind him on the wall.

I can make stale instant coffee mixed with hot chocolate, but at least that's a start. If I keep making coffee every day, who knows where i'll end up...


I'm sure Dad will teach me a few things one day when I go to see Him :) 



:)Psalm 46:10, James 4:8

Monday, June 9, 2014

Nothing At All

If you had nothing, where would you go?

Imagine for a second, you were standing in the middle of a giant desert. In fact, you had no idea whether the entire planet was a desert. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. You had no home. You had no family. You had no friends, no Facebook to tell everyone how lonely you are, or to ask "where am I?". No twitter to #lost in the desert #please send help #sandinmyshoes. No internet, no computer. ...and if you can, try and imagine having no cellphone! 

That may be difficult for some!

You had no workplace, no school, no city or country to 'go back to' to find your place. No car, bike, scooter or any other form of transportation to get you anywhere fast. Not that you even knew where to start.

Furthermore, you had no education, no ability to read, write or even speak. You wouldn't even have an accent or a language to give you a hint as to where you might be from.

You wouldn't even have any clothing, to maybe just give you something to start you off. No jeans, shoes, t-shirts, hats, or any clothing associated with any other culture, or place in the world! 

No clues whatsoever.


Nothing to 'go home to' to get just a little bit of comfort, relief and relaxation... No couch, no lazyboy recliner, no bed, no nice warm fireplace, not even your favourite comfy pants or snuggly blanket. NO COFFEE!

Sorry to those offended by this coffee heresy.


Not even a friend, a parent, a brother or sister to give you an embrace. No sky sports, movies or your favourite tv show to watch. No latest favourite band to listen to. No fashions and trends to follow to give you a sense of 'being cool'. No cat or dog or children to welcome you home. No Man Cave to escape to and do man things, or coffee dates for girls ;)

Absolutely nothing! All you knew was that you were here. Wherever that was! You had no idea why. You just knew you were there.


What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you turn to? What direction would you go? What if that step forward in the right direction was actually a step backwards. Where would you find your sense of peace, comfort and relief that can only come from getting home into your own home, couch and bed? Or watching your favourite sports team (All Blacks) win, again. How would you deal with that sense of loneliness? That lack of purpose? The sense of not knowing who you were or why you were even alive?


It makes you think if you had nothing at all but life itself, what would you do? Stay in one place and keep it all to yourself, afraid to do anything wrong and telling yourself that you don't really want or need to know? Or search up, down and in every direction around you until you found out the truth as to why you were there. You might find purpose, hope and a fulfilling life helping others you might encounter along the way.

It might take a while. But that's OK, you have nothing else to distract you... Life itself is your only priority now...