“Do you know how helpless you feel if you have a full cup of coffee in your hand and you start to sneeze?” ~ Jean Kerr, Author, (1922-2003)

Good morning and welcome. It's Wednesday, the first day of October and I'm trying to piece together another visit here in the year of 2014. I do hate it when I miss something really important. I didn't actually miss it because someone told me about it but it would have been better had I known about it previously. I could have dressed appropriately and perhaps had some prepared remarks to share. I'm talking about International Coffee Day, and I also believe it was National Coffee Day as well. This was celebrated on Monday of this week. Fortunately, a former Church member of ours who know works in marketing for the Community Coffee Company posted this recognition on Facebook. I immediately sent her a note along with a photo of the individual serve, (Café Special, Medium-Dark Roast), that I imbibe, and told her that I had already been celebrating multiple times that day. One would think that I would be on the contact list for important days like that. It's almost like they scheduled a party and I didn't get the invitation. Since I am an unpaid ambassador for my coffee brand maybe they didn't get the memo I wrote appointing myself to that position. You can relax. Today's little segment is nothing more than a continuing serialized long running joke that I have for the most part run into the ground. Whether you knew about the special day or not, go ahead and enjoy whatever it is you like and forget the fact that I tend to be just a tad narrow minded about my choice.

I do see many children nowadays who are consuming the doctored up coffee drinks in the familiar tall cups. That is somewhat unusual because as a kid growing up I might have occasionally gotten some milk coffee loaded up with sugar but it certainly was not a regular occurrence.  I probably didn't start drinking black coffee until I had been working a number of years. But today a family of four can stop by on their way to Church and go through the drive through at the fancy coffee place and after dropping $40 they all arrive with their daily jolt, so to speak. That's what I call marketing. I carry my own coffee and my personal coffee maker when we travel. Yes. I know they furnish their stuff in the room. Sorry. I will have to admit that it's that important to me. We stopped at this crowded old fashioned looking restaurant on our recent trip thinking that it would be a good place to eat a late breakfast. The first thing you judge is the coffee. It was terrible. Greasy. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it but the wife couldn't tolerate the smells and we ended up having to leave. The lady offered to refill my cup. No thank you. You live and learn. We all have our quirks. If you ever see me with one of those tall coffee cups and it has the whipped cream on top, you will know that I have found a new quirk. However, just so you know, you might be in for a long wait.

I know folks mean well when they send out what is to them an inspiring challenge or word of encouragement. I'm all for that. However, I'm not much into sending anything out that asks the person receiving it to respond. Folks typically get dozens upon dozens of emails each day and they most likely do good just to browse through them. Then you have those that come with a dire warning that if you don't do something like endorse it by forwarding it to others something terrible might happen. This is nothing more than the old fashioned chain letter deal from the snail-mail world and it's mostly a huge irritation to me. I actually get quite a few of these from people that I know are well grounded and faithful to our Lord. I would hope they are not encouraging people that if ten others will take some kind of action some type of financial windfall will occur. That sounds like the crazy preachers I used to hear on the all night radio stations. I'm not making fun here but I'm not going to encourage people to purchase a prayer cloth from a heretic and I'm not going to ask people to participate in something that certainly is inconsistent with the truth that God has given to us. I know that many times the motives are pure but this is my way of seeing it and since I typically share those kinds of things in this space, now you have my thoughts. The good news is that God can be counted on to always be faithful even when we are not, and when things seem turned upside down, we can be sure of His always abiding presence. That's a great blessing. Amen.    .....More later.