it's a wonderful cup
| It matters to me what my coffee tastes like. For some people, any cup of coffee will do. yet for me, I've actually developed a keen sense of a "shaken, not stirred" approach to my joe. I don't know how it happened. It just did. And now I've gotten in this mode of being very particular about measuring the number of whole bean scoops, the strength of the blend, the purity of the water, the temperature, the amount of half-and-half, the amount of cinnamon and the amount of cocoa (and a dash of whip cream now and then... the kind that makes that crazy noise as it comes flying out of the pressurized can at 173 miles per hour... the kind the makes the coffee splash on my fancy red Christmas shirt ... the kind that you can't help but open your mouth real wide and coat your tonsils with...) I've found that when everything is just the way that I like it, only then do I fully enjoy it. |  |
| Most of us have things in our life that we like a certain way, and when they're not, we don't enjoy them; we're not happy. Most of us have a LIFE that we want a certain way. And when it's not that certain way, we don't enjoy it; we're not happy. And that's the rub. How many of us are living the Life that we had dreamed for ourselves? How many of us are completely content with how things are turning out in our lives? Because when we don't see our dreams being fulfilled, we usually become bitter and resentful. Life is not the certain way we had intended, and as a result, we're not happy. It happens to most of us. The dreams we dreamed for ourselves haven't come to be. Sometimes we spend our lives trying to reach our dreams as an ongoing obsession. Sometimes we quit trying and feel defeated. Other folks go through Life the way someone else around them wants them to live. They live for someone else. Could it be, that when we stop living for what WE want or for what OTHER PEOPLE want for us and start living for what GOD wants, that the bitterness and resentment that we experience in life is replaced by the joy and fullness of life that God desires for us? I wonder what would happen when we started dreaming the dreams that God dreams for us. I wonder what would happen when we started making our goals, ambitions, and plans the same as God's goals, ambitions and plans for us. We might find that awesome cup of jo, isn't nearly as awesome as the cup that God wants us to drink... Who's cup (plans) are you drinking (living) from? Yours? Others? or God's? | |
I raise my Christmasbucks cup to you. Drink deep, drink often, drink well. Hey,I think I've seen that picture before...
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Here here!
I finally figured out how to bluetooth my mobile phone pics to my laptop ... That's an image from that cool Starbucks below a hotel built in the 1700's in Annapolis. Of all of the different Starbucks in the country I've visited (maybe twenty-five locations), this one is by far, my favorite ...
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at first i thought i was going to have to say something sarcastic about starbucks and how the coffee itself is not quality, but the stuff that goes in it is what makes people think it is good. but then you got me thinking...
i think i needed to hear this. i personally get very angry and bitter at how people want me to live. i resent their judgment. but i do have to say that i do kind of live in a idealized sense of what other people's reactions to me are.
i do not look to other people for approval, but i do expect them to in a way, and when they don't like what i do then i call them judgmental.
this leads me to believe that i am living in a world of unrealistic expectations. and in so doing i am being judgmental of them. so in essence when i read your words, i mentally slapped myself in the face for being such an idiot. so thank you for the corrective advice. this whole time i am thinking i am right by pushing the live for yourself not what others think of you idea. which is not entirely bad, since you can't let others control what you think of yourself.
but what about that third party? God has a much better perspective on things than we do. so why don't we live according to what he thinks we should be doing? it is a very good question and i am thankful to you for asking.
-rachel
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Rachel:
Thanks for your vulnerability; your honesty; and your authenticity. I used to live life with an "in your face" style. The proverbial, "If you can't accept me for who I am, then too bad for you."
I came to realize that "who I am" wasn't so pretty when I was living to please me or to please others. I came to realize that I needed to align myself with God's desire for who He wanted me to me and where He wanted me to go.
The journey has been tough at times. But, that's what grace is all about. He corrects the compass of my life and sets it back to "true north" (Him) when I start slipping in to the mode of living for me or for others again...
Blessings to you and your family this wonderful Christmas Eve.
dan
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