I was 36 when it started. I can tell you the exact moment. I was standing in a little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere Ohio making breakfast for the youth group. I was getting up at 4:30 to make a hearty breakfast, pack lunches and clean up all before we left at 7 to start the day of painting and other manual labor. By the time I got back to the house, made dinner, cleaned up, and spent some time hanging out - it was anywhere between 10-11 at night before my head hit my pillow.
I was exhausted. I was running on fumes. I was sore.
Then it happened. That desperate yet glorious first cup of coffee.
It was there when I was up all night with a newborn. It kept me going when my kids were sick. It was my companion through the chaos of breaking up toddler fights, chasing after little buns to get them to actually sit on the potty, tackling mountains of laundry, days worth of Christmas decorating, and the countless late-night work sessions.
Coffee really is amazing isn’t it. The aroma. The flavor. The caffeine boost.
But there are so many popular sayings about coffee that aren’t accurate. They are all slightly different, but they all have the basic formula…..something about Jesus and and something about coffee.
They are humorous. We’ve all heard them, perhaps even said them - but it makes me wonder, when did we start adding to Jesus, like He wasn’t enough? When did he stop being our “all in all”?
Even looking back these past 7 years of parenthood, I wonder “Did I rely on Jesus to get through the day as much as I relied on caffeine?” Is caffeine the thing that makes me a better mother or was it time spent studying the Word? Did it really empower me for the day ahead - or did I condition myself to think I can’t live without it?
The problem with the “Jesus and (fill in the blank)” ideology is that we are doing the same thing as the children of Israel did when they began to make the golden calf. We are making for ourselves something … else.
Read Exodus 32. It wasn’t just the making of an idol that angered God. It wasn’t just the sacrifices and the worship. It was also that they attributed their miraculous deliverance and exodus from Egypt to a man-made substitute and not to God Himself.
Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.”
How often do we start the sentence with Jesus but He doesn’t remain the subject. We add to Him. We give glory to God…AND to something else entirely that He had no hand in. God had no more hand in me loving coffee than he did with me choosing to wear a black t shirt today. Let’s not confuse God ordering our steps with showing the same reverence and praise in the same sentence as Jesus.
Please don’t think I have anything against coffee. I drank a cup of coffee this morning. For me, coffee was just that “thing” that I was adding to my daily life - I began to praise its effect on my life more than the effects of Jesus in my life.
Do I love coffee? Absolutely. Do I love my husband? Of course. Do I love my kids? Heck yes.
But do I love them more than or the same way as I love Jesus? No.
That’s a hard sentence to type out. But it has to be true. God demands it be true. At the end of the day, it isn’t my husband or my kids that fulfill me. It isn’t my family, my coffee, my house, my job, my friends, a hobby, going for that walk, my favorite musician, or even going to church. Jesus is the one who saved me, who healed me, who delivered me; He was the one who was with me when I was barely making it through the day, He was the one who was empowering me to be a better wife and mother. He was the one who was sustaining me. It was His strength that was made perfect in my weaknesses.
So no. It’s not Jesus and. It’s Jesus. He is more than enough. He is my “one thing” and my only thing!
And nothing is or should be on the same level as Jesus. Period.
I was exhausted. I was running on fumes. I was sore.
Then it happened. That desperate yet glorious first cup of coffee.
It was there when I was up all night with a newborn. It kept me going when my kids were sick. It was my companion through the chaos of breaking up toddler fights, chasing after little buns to get them to actually sit on the potty, tackling mountains of laundry, days worth of Christmas decorating, and the countless late-night work sessions.
Coffee really is amazing isn’t it. The aroma. The flavor. The caffeine boost.
But there are so many popular sayings about coffee that aren’t accurate. They are all slightly different, but they all have the basic formula…..something about Jesus and and something about coffee.
They are humorous. We’ve all heard them, perhaps even said them - but it makes me wonder, when did we start adding to Jesus, like He wasn’t enough? When did he stop being our “all in all”?
Even looking back these past 7 years of parenthood, I wonder “Did I rely on Jesus to get through the day as much as I relied on caffeine?” Is caffeine the thing that makes me a better mother or was it time spent studying the Word? Did it really empower me for the day ahead - or did I condition myself to think I can’t live without it?
The problem with the “Jesus and (fill in the blank)” ideology is that we are doing the same thing as the children of Israel did when they began to make the golden calf. We are making for ourselves something … else.
Read Exodus 32. It wasn’t just the making of an idol that angered God. It wasn’t just the sacrifices and the worship. It was also that they attributed their miraculous deliverance and exodus from Egypt to a man-made substitute and not to God Himself.
Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.”
How often do we start the sentence with Jesus but He doesn’t remain the subject. We add to Him. We give glory to God…AND to something else entirely that He had no hand in. God had no more hand in me loving coffee than he did with me choosing to wear a black t shirt today. Let’s not confuse God ordering our steps with showing the same reverence and praise in the same sentence as Jesus.
Please don’t think I have anything against coffee. I drank a cup of coffee this morning. For me, coffee was just that “thing” that I was adding to my daily life - I began to praise its effect on my life more than the effects of Jesus in my life.
Do I love coffee? Absolutely. Do I love my husband? Of course. Do I love my kids? Heck yes.
But do I love them more than or the same way as I love Jesus? No.
That’s a hard sentence to type out. But it has to be true. God demands it be true. At the end of the day, it isn’t my husband or my kids that fulfill me. It isn’t my family, my coffee, my house, my job, my friends, a hobby, going for that walk, my favorite musician, or even going to church. Jesus is the one who saved me, who healed me, who delivered me; He was the one who was with me when I was barely making it through the day, He was the one who was empowering me to be a better wife and mother. He was the one who was sustaining me. It was His strength that was made perfect in my weaknesses.
So no. It’s not Jesus and. It’s Jesus. He is more than enough. He is my “one thing” and my only thing!
And nothing is or should be on the same level as Jesus. Period.
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