Coffee and I have always had a strange relationship.  For years I detested coffee: the smell, the taste, the very existence of the substance.  Then one day I tried coffee again but prepared a different way and absolutely loved it.  My thought at the time was something along the lines of: OH MY GOODNESS THIS STUFF IS WONDERFUL IT MAKES ME FEEL AMAZING I WANT TO DRINK IT SEVEN TIMES A DAY IF YOU BUY ME COFFEE I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER.  See, I love coffee, but sometimes I randomly stop drinking it because I’m too lazy to make it or I don’t feel like buying creamer or some other reason.  Then one day I’ll have coffee again and remember how much I love coffee and how ridiculous it is that I let stupid little excuses get in my way of drinking my beloved coffee.  And the cycle goes on and on.

Then one night last week I was lying in bed when I had an epiphany.  Are you ready for the spiritual analogy?

My relationship with coffee is like our relationship with God.

We spend part of our lives avoiding God, not knowing who He is, running from Him, running from the hypocrisy of “Christians,” etc.  Then one day we have a real encounter with Him and we can’t believe we went our lives without Him as a part of it.  Then we get lazy or we procrastinate or life gets in the way and we forget about God or we put Him on the back burner.  Then we encounter Him again and remember how amazing He is and how much He loves us and we realize how ridiculous this cycle is.

So why do we continue to do it?  I guess because we’re human and we are flawed.  But the beautiful thing is, no matter how many times we let our relationship with God slide, He is always right there waiting for us with open arms.  That’s amazing. Even more amazing than coffee (though I do thank God quite often for coffee).

So now when I drink my coffee in the morning it does more than just wake me up, it reminds me of how amazing our God is.

Photo Credit: Dan Gold