Life is Like a Cup of Coffee

From one coffee lover (addict) to another:

Coffee is a ubiquitous analogy. During college, several assignments required that I choose some sort of object as a symbol of what I’d learned. Hated these types of assignments, but each time, coffee was my go-to, and the resulting analogies turned out to be surprisingly fitting. So now I turn to it again, but on a broader scale: coffee as an analogy for life.

Life is like a cup of coffee…

1.       It’s an acquired taste. Now hold up. Life is an acquired taste? What’s that supposed to mean? Well, think about it. When you first started drinking coffee, it wasn’t actually the coffee flavor you loved, but all the sugar, chocolate, and other candy bar flavors that it included. Now think back to childhood. The experiences you initially appreciated when young were those that were easy and fun. Sweet. Anything involving pain, delayed gratification, or hard work, you disliked – it seemed dark and bitter. Black coffee.

 

However, as you continued drinking the sugary-sweet “coffees,” you slowly began to enjoy the rich, bitter aftertaste of the coffee itself.  You started adding less caramel. Less whip. So it is in life with hard work and difficult experiences. Though you don’t often appreciate them at the time, you look back and realize how they’ve shaped your life and character; you see they’ve been for your good all along, and you enjoy that delicious bitter aftertaste. It’s the paradox, the juxtaposition, of those two things—“bitter” and “delicious”—that makes the analogy so fitting.

 

Thus, the love of all of life (not just the sweet parts) is an acquired taste – one acquired through gratitude and trust, and one we’ll continue acquiring in increasing measure until we reach eternity and perfectly see the perfect goodness of every bitter brew.

 

2.       The best things come through pressure and heat. Similar to number one. But think about it. To brew that perfect cup of coffee, the grounds undergo scalding water. In the case of the espresso for specialty drinks, the grounds are first compressed and then scalding water is forcibly shot through them. The result? Deliciousness in a cup. Isn’t that true of life, as well? No pain, no gain.

 

3.       Varieties are endless. Choose a regular cup o’ joe, the half-caf no-whip skinny soy almond vanilla latte on ice, or one of a million other varieties for every mood and every weather. The decision is overwhelming. The variety of life situations and decisions you’ll encounter is also endless and will feel overwhelming. But as you start to make many decisions that significantly impact your future, keep this in mind. God cares more about WHO you ARE, than WHAT you DO. Not that he doesn’t have a plan for your life. Not that he’s not guiding you. But if you look at the Bible, God dropping signs out of the sky, whispering voices, moistening fleeces, etc to show people what specifically to do with their lives was the exception, not the norm. We don’t find commandments about what job we should take or who we should marry. But we are repeatedly commanded to pursue holiness. So let this be the basis for your decision-making. Will it further His kingdom? Will it sanctify me? And then…go for it! Will you feel nervous? Yes! Big decisions are unsettling. But as long as you are pursuing holiness and His kingdom, whatever decision you make will be good.

 

(On a side note, you could also apply these endless varieties to people – so many different kinds of people you will meet – some fruity, some nutty, some bitter, some sweet, some perky…choose carefully which one you’ll be, ha!)

 

4.       Better when savored slowly! Sure, you can gulp down that cold press with white chocolate in a few sips. But really, it’s so much better to let it trickle over your tongue and reach those back corners of your mouth, fully activating all taste buds. Apply to life. It’s so, so easy to not live in the present – to always be thinking of (and wishing for) the past or imagining the future – wishing for the end of the work day, wishing for the end of the school year, wishing for…whatever. But the only thing we truly ever have is the present, and it’s better to savor it. How? I think the key, again, is gratitude. Active gratitude. There’re so many cheesy but true quotes I could insert here. “The journey is the destination.” “Don’t count the days, make the days count!” “Present moment living is at the heart of joyful living, because… tomorrow is just another present moment when it arrives.” Yet another lesson we’ll be learning our whole lives.

So there you have it. Life wisdom through the lens of coffee.  Told you it could be used as an analogy for everything.

With Love & Caffeine,

Samantha

 

*Initially, this was written to my little brother, Christopher. He graduated from high school last June, and as I wanted to write something meaningful, I chose the subject to be something we both heartily enjoy - coffee. I stumbled across it again tonight, and since my life's been particularly caffeinated of late, decided to share this slightly modified version.