What Are We Chasing

Tonight in our small group we talked about and prayed for believers in Muslim countries who must follow their faith in secret or risk being disowned by their family, kidnapping, torture, and even death in some places. Most of them don't even have bibles available to them in their language. Our conversation turned toward how often we don't appreciate and take advantage of how comparatively easy it is to live and share our faith in our culture. It got me thinking about how often our pursuit of the American Dream has supplanted our pursuit of God. Here is part of an email I received recently... one of those many forwards we all get.

A group of alumni, all highly established in their respective careers, got together for a visit with their old university professor. The conversation soon turned to complaints about the endless stress of work and life in general.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot of coffee and an eclectic assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal - some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite. Quietly he told them to help themselves to some fresh coffee.

When each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the old professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address the small gathering. "You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups were taken up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones. While it is only natural for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is actually the source of much of your stress-related problems."

He continued. "Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we drink. What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you instinctively went for the best cups. Then you began eyeing each other's cups."

The email goes on to explain the professor's parable that life is the coffee and our jobs, money and the things we spend so much time pursuing are the cups. It ends by drawing some conclusions and telling us what to do. I think it's much better if we each do our own wrestling with our cups of coffee, so I'll close by simply asking what cups keep you from really appreciating the coffee of life God gives us?