I don't do that on Sundays though. Leah and I get coffee on the way to church. Plans. We make them and life laughs. So no church for Leah and I this morning, and that meant no coffee ready for me. Groan. I need my coffee.
I need coffee. Did I say that already? Yes, I did.. OK. Just wanted to make sure that it was clear that I need coffee. My brain isn't working too well because there's too much blood in my caffeine system. Being the junkie that I am, I made a pot. Because if I can't have it cool like I want, I'll take it any way I can get it. Except for decaf. That stuff's an abomination.
Then I opened the container and thought Oh no. Not only do I need coffee, but I need to buy coffee. I threw up a prayer that there was enough to make a pot and determined to make a grocery store run this afternoon no matter what. I don't want to get to that point of not having enough.
All of this needing directed toward coffee made me think of this image that my stepdaughter Amanda posted on my Facebook wall the other day and what I need even more than coffee. This image blessed me tremendously when I first saw it as much because of who put it on my wall as for what it said. I love my stepdaughter, and my stepson too for that matter, and feel extremely blessed to have them in my life and to have relationships with them. So I first felt blessed that Amanda thought of the coffee junkie preacher that married her mother when this image came across her feed, but after that I thought what it said was cute and clever. Leah and I discussed painting it on the wall of our kitchen near her Keurig.
But it hit me this morning that this isn't just funny or cute or clever. This is awesome. Coffee is an addiction. I know that. It's one of those accepted and allowed addictions because it's not the life destroyer of other addictions. It's not pushing me from God or time with Him. I'm not lying, cheating or stealing to obtain coffee or feed my habit. I don't have to break the law or endanger anyone. I'm not going to rob someone for coffee money no matter how broke I am. You get the idea. It's just not on the same level. But it is an addiction, at least to the caffeine. I do need it to prevent headaches at this point, and if I can't get coffee I'll substitute a soda or even caffeine pills and a bottle of water.
That said, I can live without it. I have given up caffeine for Lent before, and while the first few days were a tad painful and rough, nothing compared to other things that I've kicked, after a week or so it was fine. But it didn't kill me. I wasn't even miserable after a short while. But while Coffee is an enjoyed addiction that we who drink it refer to slightly tongue in cheek as the elixir of life, it's really not essential to life. And no, that doesn't hurt to say and it's not blasphemy.
Christ on the other hand does indeed offer forgiveness for everyone everywhere, and we all need it. Not need it like we need coffee, but like we need air, more so in truth. I think I would like this even more if it read Christ offers freedom for everyone everywhere. Because freedom includes forgiveness, which frees us from guilt and condemnation, but it also covers the grace that enables us to walk free of the things that are destroying us, that keep us in bondage and that bring death. Christ offers the freedom of life worth living and the freedom to enter into relationship with and the presence of our Creator. There's freedom from fear, from death and addiction. It's so necessary that outside of Christ there is no life. He is the Word that spoke all into being made flesh.
There's nothing tongue in cheek or cute about our need for Christ. There's also no substitute, no alternative. No other substance or path with the essential element so desperately needed that brings life. Nothing within or without and no pill or plan can give us what Christ offers freely. We can't earn it or buy it, but we can have it. All of us, regardless of anything we are, have been or have done. We don't ever have to worry about having enough. His mercy and grace are always available, always sufficient. Yes, I have found it to be so true that more than coffee and more than air, if I want to experience life worth living, joy, peace and freedom I need Jesus to fill my cup.
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