coffee

Still My Favorite

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Kudos to whoever thought up the concept of coffee. I was late to the game, but I now depend on this concoction to get me going in the mornings. A day without coffee is like . . . who am I kidding? I have no idea.

The kind of coffee determines how I take it. If it’s the regular Folger’s, then I will typically add some kind of creamer. If it’s a Fresh Market flavored coffee or a light roast, then I will only add sugar. As long as it’s not decaf, then I’m good to go.

But as you who drink coffee know, that first sip in the morning is like a tonic for the soul. It goes to a place inside me where all my happiness lives and awakens me and helps me do all the adulting for the next 24 hours.

It may be a bad morning. Everything else may be going wrong, but if I have that first cup of coffee, I know that the day will eventually get better. My office might literally fall apart around me, but at least I won’t be sleepy.

So whoever invented coffee should probably have a holiday. I don’t mean one of those wimpy holidays that only get stuck on calendars. I mean the kind where everyone gets a day off of work and no mail runs and everyone rejoices. And I can drink more coffee.

Why I Love Coffee

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I’m a big fan of coffee for several reasons. A few of these are:

  1. It helps me do the walking and talking and forming coherent sentences thing.
  2. It’s a good source of warmth on a frigid winter’s day.
  3. Coffee is a bean, and beans go in salads, so it’s kinda like drinking a salad every day.
  4. I feel more adult when I drink coffee.
  5. There’s almost nothing like the feeling you get when that first gulp of coffee hits your soul.
  6. Coffee = not sleeping on the job = not getting fired for sleeping on the job =  more money to buy more coffee.

I’m not a coffee purist, one of those people who drink their coffee black as midnight with only the teensiest bit of sugar. I often say that I like my coffee well-disguised with lots of creamer and sugar. In other words, I like it a latte.

I’ve discovered that if I’m forced to drink coffee as is, I do better with a light roast– along the lines of Starbucks’ vanilla blonde roast.

I like the saying that goes something like this: I think 75% of my personality was just coffee. All it takes is that one cup, and all your problems seem a whole lot more solve-able.

I also like tea, but that’s probably best left for another day when I’m less sleepy.

 

That’s Country!

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garth-brooks

Growing up, I had a list of “never”s.

By that I mean I had a list of things I’d just about rather die than be caught doing.

I don’t really recall most of them at this point, but I do remember a few highlights.

I specifically recall that I’d never 1) listen to country music, 2) drink coffee, or 3) put hot sauce on anything.

It’s probably best never to say never.

The hot sauce ban ended shortly after the Wasabi incident (where that Wasabi glob on my plate looked an awful lot like guacamole– but it wasn’t).

The no-coffee rule lasted until I had to be at work super early and I needed the caffeine to pry my eyes open in order to work more effectively.

The country music? It turns out that what I didn’t like was pop music masquerading as country music. I heard George Jones sing “The Grand Tour” and that was that. I’m now a fan of genuine country music– along with folk, jazz, rock, indie, and just about every other genre you can think of (and a few that defy categorization).

Recently, I picked up the Garth Brooks box set, exclusive to Target, called The Ultimate Collection.

There was a time when I would have rather had red hot pokers thrust into my eye sockets than listen to Garth, but times have changed.

I’m about halfway through the 10-CD set and I have to confess that I’m loving it. He’s the real deal.

My point (and I do have one) is to not close yourself off to new experiences because they’re different or outside of your comfort zone.

Take risks and be spontaneous on occasion.

Try to live and be present in every moment instead of always living for the weekend or the next holiday or the next big event in your life.

And that Garth Brooks collection is on sale at Target for $23. It’s a bargain.

http://www.target.com/p/garth-brooks-the-ultimate-collection-target-exclusive/-/A-51666650

Mondays Are Rude

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“Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings” (Ephesians 3:16-19, The Voice).

Mondays are just rude. They come barging in at some ungodly hour of the morning, interrupting your nice, relaxing weekend, making all sorts of demands, sucker-punching you in the face, forcing you to interact with life before you’ve even had your first cup of coffee. Of all the nerve.

Mondays are typically the days when your passwords suddenly don’t work, you spill that beloved cup of coffee on all your papers, and your inbox blows up.

Sometimes, it can feel like Monday can last a lot longer than 24 hours. It can seem to go on for days, weeks, and even months. You don’t feel adequate to handle all that Monday brings.

Relax. Remember this.

God doesn’t just give you enough grace and mercy to get by. He doesn’t just give you enough love to sustain you until Tuesday mercifully arrives. He doesn’t dole out peace with stingy fingers and a dour face.

Your cup runneth over with God’s provisions. You don’t just get enough. You get much,much more.

You get God. Not just what’s leftover when everybody else has gotten their share. You get all of God.

You get so much grace, mercy, love, and peace that it’s like trying to catch the ocean in a thimble (with thanks to Mike Glenn for that image). There’s so much that it overflows your capacity to receive and pours out on those around you, those in the places where you live and work and play.

Honestly, all Mondays come to an end. They seem to last forever, but they’re just 24 hours, like the other six days in the week.

All of God’s grace and mercy and love and peace will never end. Long after Monday is over, those will still be with you. God will still be with you.

And there’s always more refills of coffee.

 

Once Again, Happy Birth-Month to Me

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I’ve taken it upon myself to celebrate the whole month of February as my birth-month. Why not? I was born in the shortest month of the year (even counting the extra leap year day that comes once every four years), so I might as well milk the month for all it’s worth.

I will be 44 on February 28. I’m not ashamed of that. A lot of people didn’t get to see 44 because they died way too young. These days, anything shy of 80 is too young.

I’m thankful for my 44 years. I’m thankful for every day that I wake up and see the sun and feel the wind in my face. I don’t take these things for granted any more.

I hope to celebrate this birthday well. I’d love to have a birthday dinner at Mafiaoza’s, either at the Factory in Franklin (if it’s open by then) or at the original location on 12th Avenue South.

As usual, I accept all major credit cards, checks, cash, and gold doubloons. I love gift certificates, especially to places like Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Target, Amazon, McKay’s, Frothy Monkey, McCreary’s Irish Pub, and any other places where they sell music, books, movies, or food. FYI.

I hope to see you during this month of festivities. I hope to have some good face-to-face conversations and catch up with as many of you as possible, especially in places where they serve coffee-based beverages. Which reminds me. I also like gift cards to Starbucks, The Well, and The Edgehill Cafe.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I see now more than ever how truly blessed I am to know the people I know and to have seen and felt the love from all of you, and especially from my Abba Father.

It’s been a very good ride so far.

 

 

A Good Place to Start

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It was another good night at Kairos, a young(ish) adult worship event that takes place at 7pm every Tuesday night at Brentwood Baptist Church (shameless plug). It’s located off I-65 exit 71 if you’re ever in the area (another shameless plug).

Tonight, Mike Glenn spoke about how Jesus, who defined how we measure history, came into the world in an inauspicious way. He didn’t come with pomp and circumstance to Jerusalem or Rome. He was born to peasant parents in backwater Bethlehem and the first eyewitnesses to the event were some smelly shepherds keeping their flocks in a nearby field.

The takeaway from tonight? Jesus is looking for a good place to start.

If I can offer up even the most hesitant agreements and the most tentative yes to God, He can completely transform my world and then use me to transform the world around me. I still believe that because I’ve seen it too many times not to believe.

That’s why I love the Christmas story. Jesus didn’t ask us to get our acts together and get cleaned up so we could make our way to Him. While we was still mired in sin, Jesus came down to where we were and became one of us. Not as a high and mighty ruler or a holier-than-thou mystic, but as the son of a carpenter. A regular joe.

By the way, if you come to Kairos, they have free coffee and Cheez-Its. For me, that’s an irresistible draw, but I understand that not everyone has come to truly experience the awesomeness of the little snack crackers known as Cheez-Its. I pray they one day will.

And if you’re stuck in a rut or don’t like where you are, remember that God is always looking for a good place to start. Maybe that next place is in you?

 

For a Limited Time Only

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puckettsGro

Yes, that’s right. The guided tour is back.

I will be your personal tour guide through the streets of Historic Downtown Franklin. Here’s a brief overview of how a typical tour would go.

mccreary-s-irish-pub

1) We start off at either McCreary’s Irish Pub or Puckett’s for some fine dining (as well as some exquisite people-watching). Those are my two favorite places to eat in Franklin.

fm

2) We head on over to The Frothy Monkey for iced or hot coffee/tea/chocolate beverages and more people-watching.

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3) From there, we trek over to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church where I expound on everything I know about this Civil War-era building (which takes all of two minutes). I recommend finding a nice quiet spot and sitting still for a minute or two. There’s also a lovely courtyard between the church and the old fire station as well as a garden on the side of the building.

friendlycritter

4) We walk around the block to Fair Street, which is currently my favorite street for admiring old houses and catching the ambiance of Franklin (as well as meeting and greeting any friendly critters that cross our path).

5) We can always walk up and down Main Street and gawk at the stores that sell stuff that I can’t afford. I can offer some almost entirely inaccurate historical facts about Franklin, like how Mr. Benjamin Franklin himself founded the Franklin Theatre way back in 1936.

6) I’m open to any further additional whims or ideas you may have. There are additional old church buildings and older homes that are worth seeing (as well as my very favorite house directly behind St. Paul’s on Fair Street).

For a limited time only, I’m offering half-price tours. That’s right. Half-price tours. Of course, half of $0 is still $0. You  can always offer to pick up my dinner and I will offer only mild resistance.

I do think that everyone should see what a perfect slice of small-town Americana looks like at least once in their lifetimes. Preferably on a day when it’s not 110 degrees in the shade. If you are really and truly interested, please reply to this blog or hit me up on my facebook page.

Lucy the Wonder Cat appreciates your business. And mine.

 

Love in General

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“This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves” (1 John 3:16-20).

I heard something today in a sermon that struck home. The pastor, Aaron Bryant, basically said that many of us are so concerned about loving people that we neglect to love the person in front of us at any given moment. We can get so caught up in the theoretical idea of love in a general sense that we fail to love our neighbor in a very practical sense.

It’s one thing to talk of loving people, but quite another to love that difficult co-worker or that annoying neighbor. Maybe it’s a brother or sister that you don’t get along with and haven’t spoken to for weeks or months.

God does have a sense of humor. When you ask God for patience, He will send you to a situation or a person who will try what little patience you have. When you pray for someone to love, often He confronts you with someone who while not completely unlovable is far from easy to love.

Remember in those times that you were once that unlovable person. In loving you, God made you lovable. Maybe when you love someone else with that kind of love, they will become lovable as well. The most effective testimony is loving people well, especially those of the faith. The calling card of the early Church was how well they loved each other.

How can you love not just in general but specifically and practically? It starts with making time for that person. Making a phone call, sending a text, paying a visit, meeting that person for coffee, or making them feel welcome when they move into your neighborhood.

There’s a word for people who claim to love God but don’t love His people– hypocrites. If you say one thing and live another, you automatically invalidate your message.

As the Apostle John said, let’s love not just in word or speech or in theory but in deed and truth.

 

 

Gotta Go Back in Time

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Digital-speedometer

So tonight Kairos was different.

The worship was stellar as usual. The teaching from Mike Glenn was spot-on. There was a full crowd per the norm. Then how, you ask, was it different?

Kairos took place tonight in Wilson Hall instead of Hudson Hall, where it is normally held. As in the Wilson Hall which hosted Kairos from its inception in 2004 through April of 2009.

For me it was like stepping out of that famous Delorean into 2008. It was weird how seeing the coffee and snacks in the lobby instantly conjured up old feelings. And not just any old feelings. I could remember exactly what I was feeling and thinking back then. The only thing missing were the people– there were very few of us in there who were there during the first go-round. That also means that a new group of people got to experience the magic of Wilson Hall.

I’m not saying I’d want to go back. I’m content with where I am now. Who knows how different things would turn out if I went back with what I know now and tried to change things?

This may not be the ideal future I envisioned for myself way back when, but this is where I’m supposed to be. This is where God has put me and where I find His provision for my need delivered at just the perfect moment when I need it most. This is where God promised that His plans for me were not for harm, but for hope and a bright future.

I found this benediction in a book I was reading today that seemed fitting to close this post:

“You go nowhere by accident.
Wherever you go, God is sending you.
Wherever you are, God has put you there; He has a purpose in your being there.
Christ who indwells you has something He wants to do through you where you are.
Believe this and go in His grace and love and power” (Dr. Richard Halverson).