{"id":1358,"date":"2016-11-14T23:05:29","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T23:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2016-11-25T15:46:48","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T15:46:48","slug":"a-blessing-in-a-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/2016\/11\/14\/a-blessing-in-a-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"A Blessing in a Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s fall again\u2013leaves are changing, a bitter chill is piercing the air, and we look ahead with some trepidation to the coming of winter snows. In the midst of this chill, this annual dying of nature, I am warmed and cheered by a little cup of bitter liquid: Coffee.<\/p>\n

Many years ago a friend sent me a funny article entitled \u201c25 reasons beer is better than women\u201d. Items included things like \u201cbeer doesn\u2019t get mad at you if you come home late\u201d and \u201cyou don\u2019t have to wine and dine a bottle of beer.\u201d (A Google search will quickly provide you dozens of sites where this information can be found). Similar lists are out there with wine. You may run across \u201cways that wine is like women\u201d\u2013for example, many get better with age. Regarding coffee, there isn\u2019t as much, though I did run across 5 ways great content is like a cup of coffee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recently a friend remarked to me that a coffee drink is \u201ca blessing in a cup.\u201d This prompted me to think of some ways that a warm beverage from the corner coffee shop might be like the presence of God.<\/p>\n

Ways that Coffee is a Blessing in a Cup<\/p>\n

Coffee warms your body the way God\u2019s love warms your soul.<\/li>\n

Coffee doesn\u2019t care about your gender, skin color, or ethnicity.<\/li>\n

Coffee doesn\u2019t care how you voted in the last election.\n \t<\/li>\n

Coffee invigorates.<\/li>\n

It helps you see more clearly.<\/li>\n

It gives you the fortitude to do what needs to be done.<\/li>\n

It lifts your mood.<\/li>\n

When it is present in a room, it fills the room with an aroma, a sense of its presence; others notice.<\/li>\n

While some coffee may be bitter, often like life itself, there are mysterious ingredients that spicen up and sweeten that bitterness, the way God\u2019s Holy Spirit sweetens our lives.<\/li>\n

We could stretch the analogy further. As with church, you often go to a special place to receive your blessing, in a building designed for the purpose of disseminating it.<\/li>\n

As with church you step out from the cold dull world into a place of warmth, where you can briefly shed your burdens and put your usual cares behind you.<\/li>\n

You may get a smile and some interaction, perhaps even a kind word, from the priest of this blessing, known as the barista.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Anyway, the next time you find your hands wrapped around that medium roast, or Latte, or Cafe mocha, and bring the hot liquid to your lips, think of it as a little blessing in a cup. Thank God for these little blessings of life and enjoy your day.<\/p>\n
(Image credit: Latte art at Doppio Ristretto in Chiang Mai. Used in accordance with Creative Commons 3.0 license<\/a>; obtained from Wikimedia Commons<\/a>).<\/body><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s fall again\u2013leaves are changing, a bitter chill is piercing the air, and we look ahead with some trepidation to the coming of winter snows. In the midst of this chill, this annual dying of nature, I am warmed and cheered by a little cup of bitter liquid: Coffee. Many years ago a friend sent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,66],"tags":[636,635,633,631,634,632,637],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-whispers-of-heaven","tag-cafe-latte","tag-cappuccino","tag-coffee","tag-god","tag-humor","tag-latte","tag-spice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1427,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theundergroundchurch.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}