My 2 Cents!

Our three or four year old coffee maker suddenly stopped working the week before Christmas.  It worked fine for my morning Java that day but following a power outage in the mid-morning, it failed to go on for an afternoon drink that my son was attempting to brew for the two of us.  I remembered that there was another one without a carafe hidden in back of one of the kitchen cabinets, so I dug it out and we jimmy rigged it to work with the carafe (that didn’t quite fit – so that you physically had to hold it while the coffee poured into it) from the broken machine.

Late in the afternoon when my son had left for home, I began to think about it and suggested to my wife that we go right then and there and pick up another brewer at the local CVS.  I really had been wanting to get one of the newer single cup dispensers, but reasoned that because of the high cost of those machines and for expediency, that we could put up with a lesser expensive multi-cup brewing machine again.  But the more I thought about it, I decided that I could make some adjustments on the back cabinet machine and use it until after the Holidays.  Who knows, I thought… maybe I would get a few Amazon gift cards that I could put toward the coffee maker I really wanted!

Well, low and behold, previous to this event, all of our kids from around the country pooled their money and our son in California bought us a wonderful new Keurig single cup coffee brewer!  After opening their gift at my in-laws on Christmas Eve, I burst out laughing as I told the story of what I almost did and everyone soon joined in with my joy!

Now as the hot water filters through the coffee K-Cup®, the wonderfully rich aroma of the ground coffee beans fills the atmosphere in the kitchen.  I have to tell you that it’s sweet smell makes me think that I just walked into a Starbuck’s coffee house!  And… even better yet… the aroma is matched by the flavor that I savor as I take that first sip standing alone in that kitchen each morning!

Ephesians 5:1-2 tells us to “Imitate God, since you are the children he loves.  Live in love as Christ also loved us.  He gave his life for us as an offering and sacrifice, a soothing aroma to God.” (God’s Word ©)  As I peeked at that verse again first thing today, I thought of how pleasurable the aroma of that coffee is to me each morning and how similar it should be to the aroma of Christ in us when we enter into other’s lives!  The old coffee maker’s brew did not have that same effect on me!  It’s kind of like the new man recreated in us verses the old us before salvation!

We are instructed in these verses to live our lives as Christ did by giving His life for us.  The only difference is that He gave His physical life once and for all of us and it is not something that need to do again.  But in the new life that His death has provided for us, we should be willing to physically give of ourselves with our time, our finances, and our touch to others in need around us.

Ephesians 5:8 reminds us that “Once you lived in the dark, but now the Lord has filled you with (His) light.”  Then it continues by declaring that this “Light exposes the true character of everything because light makes everything easy to see.” (All scriptures from God’s Word ©) These verses combined with others such as John 1:4 make it clear that it is His light shining through us that will not only be a rich aroma of His love to others, but also cause them to gently see whatever the light exposes to them – and - put a desire and an expectancy and possibility the of change into their lives!

Remember… it’s His light that they should see and not ours!  It is His wisdom, His love and His Holy Spirit power that they need in their lives, not our personal “2 cents” of information we think will be helpful to them!  The online Urban Dictionary defines the idiom of “my 2 cents” as “An inconsequential opinion or comment given to another person on a particular topic.  Not because it was warranted, but because the giver felt compelled to say it, regardless of its relevance.”   That’s not the kind of help that the Word says we as followers of Christ are to give to others!  It’s His life and His light that people need!  And it is only through His life and light that others can experience the power to receive the healing, the help and/or the comfort they need, along with the ability to make any personal changes in habit, thinking or actions that may be required.

Believe me when I tell you that I have had people share their “2 cents” with me in times of desperate need and it felt like the time I tripped and grabbed a hot stovepipe as a little kid while camping with my family at Richardson Grove State park in the Redwoods of Northern California!  The aroma of burnt flesh and the shock of pain that radiated from my burnt fingers was nothing like the delicious sweet aroma and taste of that rich coffee in the morning that reminded me today of the fragrance of God’s light and love emanating through us to others.

Which would you rather experience?  Which would you rather have emanating from you?  Have a great rest of the week.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”