Coffee & Jesus

Am I an addict? You be the judge.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

I remember the first day I drank a cup of coffee.

I was 25 years old. Fresh off retiring from professional baseball. Well on my way to becoming the greatest newspaper delivery guy in the region.

According to my boss at the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, that is.

That’s right, my first sip of coffee happened on a random street in Fayetteville, AR at 3am.

That’s if you don’t count the “Hot Choco-Latte” I ordered on a date with my then girlfriend (now wife) after I got back from the Dominican Republic and I was trying my best to speak Spanish by adding “é” to the end of every word I said. I’m not counting it because I spit it out.

It was the night before this fateful night on the streets of Fayetteville that I fell asleep while driving. Thankfully no one else was on the road and I woke up as I felt my car drift, but the experience was definitely a wake up call (no pun intended).

My work shift was basically 1am to 6am and because of other work I was doing I wasn’t sleeping during the day. I was only sleeping from 9pm-1am and then going to work for the day.

I knew I wouldn’t get less tired, so I knew something needed to change.

Later that day I bought a Keurig, some K-Cups, and two to-go mugs.

I was set.

The next morning I woke up, hit the play button on my Keurig, and left the house a proud drinker of coffee. After I let the coffee cool down for an hour (which, as it turns out, means the coffee was indeed not helpful when I first started driving that night) I took my first sip.

After 15 minutes I was hit with a wave of energy. My first thought?

“Man, if I would have been drinking this while playing baseball I wouldn’t have had to retire early!”

There’s a reason why having too much caffeine in your system can make you test positive on a drug test in professional sports.

All jokes aside, I drank coffee that night, the next night, and the next night, and every day since then. It’s possible I’ve missed a day or two but now I’m an avid coffee drinker.

I talk about coffee all the time.

One of my favorite things to do is to sit in a coffee shop and drink coffee. I like to enjoy it. I drink my coffee black so I’m getting the real thing.

I’ll drink it slow to ensure I taste all of it.

I’ll hold the cup in my hands to feel the warmth the mug provides.

I’ll treasure each sip until I see the mug empty.

What began as a moment of desperation on a paper route has now turned into a staple of enjoyment in my life. Some people would call it an addiction but they’re just haters.

Today, as I was looking at the empty coffee cup I enjoyed earlier at our local coffee shop, I thought, “Man, I really wish I had some more coffee to drink.” Not because I need more caffeine, but because I love coffee.

And in that moment the Spirit hit me with a thought… All of this is a parable for our relationship with Jesus. Except the professional baseball part.

We come to Him in a moment of desperation.

We’re not sure what we’re getting ourselves into but we know we need Him desperately.

He meets our deepest needs and we wish we would have known Him so much sooner.

As we come to Him day by day He begins prove Himself as the most sure thing in our lives.

And the longer we follow Him and seek after Him the more we realize we just love Him and want to spend more and more time with Him — even when it wouldn’t appear that we need to because we’ve already spent time with Him that day.

As I sit here I know two things:

1. I don’t want to go a day without coffee. What a good gift from God.

2. I don’t want to go a moment without Jesus. I love Him.

The thing about coffee is this: I drank a lot of bad coffee when I didn’t know what I was doing. I drank the cheap stuff. It tasted poorly. I didn’t know how to make it properly. Pushing through those times have allowed me to get where I am today as a guy who can enjoy a great cup of coffee and knows what great coffee tastes like. Okay, now it’s starting to sound like I have an addiction.

The thing about Jesus is this: There were lots of days that I didn’t know what I was doing. I would read the Bible and not understand. I would pray and there would be silence. I would try to obey and get it wrong. I would feel awkward trying to shape my life to His. Pushing through those times have allowed me to get where I am today as a guy who can’t function without Jesus.

Here’s my point:

Push through. Seek Jesus. Don’t give up. Fight to love Him. He’s worth it in every way.

✌🏻