I Found God in Coffee...

I LOVE coffee.

Regular coffee (with cream)... flavored coffee... hot coffee... lukewarm coffee... ANY coffee...! I'll make my own coffee - get "good" coffee - drink vending machine coffee. I just love it all.

My favorite coffee shop is a local spot called Kidd Coffee; it's my happy place-- the place with the GOOD coffee. A large Almond Joy (expresso, steamed milk, coconut flavoring, almond flavoring, and mocha) or a Nutty Irishman (expresso, steamed milk, irish cream, and hazelnut flavoring) is the BEST way to start my day.

I've designed my own coffee cups - one with photos of my kids, one with pictures of my favorite TV show (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), one with photos from my favorite book (Twilight), and one with a collage of my dog, Mick. The cup really doesn't matter - it's the coffee that I love - but I do love having a fun cup to drink from.

I found this wonderful story about life and coffee at Spiritual-Short-Stories.com. I hope you enjoy it as much I did. :)

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

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 students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is 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; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just MAKE the best of everything.

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
Psalm 24:1

Our quality of life is not determined by the stuff we have, the money we've piled, or the size of our house, car, or wardrobe. The quality of our life is determined by our relationship with God, our acceptance of Jesus, and our relationships with others.

Don't make the cup more important than the coffee inside.
Enjoy the coffee.
:)

I Found God in the Movies: Dead Poet's Society

In college, I had a movie writing assignment - to write about the theme as it pertains to teaching (my major) in a movie of our choosing. One of my all-time favorites is Dead Poet's Society with Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, and Josh Charles; that was the film I chose for my essay.

How interesting that I would revisit this for The God Blog. It wasn't a "religious" movie, specifically - but the central theme revolved around discovering the beliefs and values you consider important... and then standing up for them. There was a quote from this movie that has always stuck with me... Not the "Carpe Diem" (Seize the day!) that Robin Williams' character, John Keating, was known to say... Not Captain, My Captain quoted by his students. This was just one more truism that Mr. Keating spoke - and it had a big impact on me.

He says...

You must strive to find your own voice,
because the longer you wait to begin...
the less likely you are to find it at all.

Your own voice. Do you have one?

Do you hold fast to your beliefs or do you cave under the pressure to fit in with those around you? Do you mimic the voices of others... never taking a stand for yourself? Are you silenced by the fear that people will make fun of you? Or are you just too lazy to take a stand on what you know is right?

Perhaps your voice is mumbled and muffled so that YOU won't be the one making waves or causing "discord?" Perhaps you don't have a voice at all. The platform of "no opinion" is certainly an easy and safe place on which to stand.

But the longer you wait to find what you believe in... the longer you stall on truly finding the lines you will not cross... the less likely you are to find your Voice at all. Your voice will become muted - dwarfed by the larger voices speaking out around you - and others will speak for you... instead of you speaking for yourself. When it comes to your faith... can you really afford to be silent?

Your own voice. Do you have one? And does your voice echo the voice of God?

God gave His people free will because He wants us to use it. He wants us to make choices and honor Him with our decisions. The tricky part for us is that often using our voice to glorify God brings condemnation from others. The Bible even tells us this:

"When people realize it is the living God you are presenting and not some idol that makes them feel good, they are going to turn on you, even people in your own family. There is a great irony here: proclaiming so much love, experiencing so much hate! But don't quit. Don't cave in. It is all well worth it in the end. It is not success you are after in such times but survival. Be survivors! Before you've run out of options, the Son of Man will have arrived. ~Matthew 10:21-23

If you haven't seen Dead Poet's Society, I HIGHLY recommend it. It's one that will stick with you - just as Mr. Keating's teachings did with his pupils. The boys in Mr. Keating's class found their Voice; they learned to think for themselves again... to stand up for their their beliefs - even in the face of disciplinary action, even in the face of great personal loss:

Can you imagine the changes in your life if the voice you find within yourself glorifies God? Mr. Keating climbs upon his classroom desk and says, "I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way." Standing up for God, the Bible, and Christianity - even if others roll their eyes at you and say "That's crazy..." or even if the herd brays "That's baaaaaaad," - needs to be one of the components in the Voice you speak. God stood up for you when he allowed His Son to sacrifice Himself for all of mankind. Isn't using your voice to stand up for God the very least you can do?

Mr. Keating shouts to his students:

In my class, you will learn to think for yourselves again!...
And as the powerful play of life goes on, YOU will contribute a verse...!

In a sea of millions of people in this world - all contributing a verse to the overall play of life, what will your verse say? How will your verse stand out from all the rest?

Speak. I'd like to hear your voice... especially if you leave a comment on this blog! :)

♥Mags

I Found God In A Computer System Crash...

Yup... think I did... my laptop system crashed in a near-fatal way last week. Some registry file went missing or corruped, and it was unable to start-up.

• 3 Phone Calls to Dell,
• $40.00 in "support fees,"
• 6 installation disks,
• over a week,
• and several headaches later...

I had manually re-installed the entire XP operating system.

This week, I reflected on the events leading up to the crash... mainly that I had been neglecting my Sunday School duties for about 3-4 weeks (I do the class weekly email-newsletter), although I was still spending a TON of time on my computer working on some new digital scrapbooking items for sale. I had also neglected this blog - even though I knew, when I started it, that I felt some pull from God to create it in the first place.

And I remembered this quote from our Pastor that has always stuck with me:

"God allows hardship to enter our lives

to warn us we are on the wrong path."

At first I wondered if God was trying to tell me that a (financially-rewarding?!) hobby of selling digital scrapbooking elements was NOT in my future. But, all of my files were safely backed-up and ready for use after the re-installation. I think now He was trying to tell me to get my priorities in-line - that my job of providing the announcements, praises, and prayers of my classmates was more important than the tasks I had set above it. That contributing to this Blog... even if I had no readers (yet?!) was also more important.

Consider this verse from Malachi 1:7 (The Message Version):
"When you say, 'The altar of God is not important anymore; worship of God is no longer a priority,' that's defiling. ..."

Take a look at the things, activities, or people in your own life that you are placing ahead of God, and committ to re-prioritizing that list into one that has God at the head rather than at the caboose. When you honor God, you will be blessed.

:) Mags