Today is national coffee day. Every day is national coffee day in my heart, but I guess today is the official one. Last night at Albertsons, I took advantage of a special they had. If you bought either Starbucks or Maxwell’s coffee, you got a free box of cereal, and it was $6.99. Which was awesome because the coffee by itself was like $10. It was a discount and a free gift, and now I have a lot of coffee and a big box of Cheerios.
California is good. I found a church that I really love – Faith Community Church. The pastor, Jim Reeve, is really funny and genuine and great. This past Sunday, the church partnered up with four other churches in the Los Angeles area and had a worship night focused on rebuilding one church in Haiti. It was awesome. There was a mass choir, and in the end they all sang “He’s got the whole world in his hands” over and over, and they pulled out Haitian flags.
This past week’s sermon at Faith was by a guest speaker, Earl McClellan, who was amazing. I’ve cried during a sermon 3 times in my life; once was Matt Hannan’s sermon about suffering, another was Bart Tarman’s talking about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and to get his mud splattered all over us, and then this past time was Pastor Earl’s talk about God being our Father. He shared this story –
There was a little girl named Sarah, and her elementary school had a father-daughter dance. Even though she didn’t have a father, she got all dressed up and went to the school. She stood outside and peered in the window, watching the fathers and the daughters dancing together, unable to go in.
Pastor Earl talked about how there are Christians like that – all dressed up, in church, presentable, but unable to go in and experience the intimacy of a father-daughter dance. Maybe it’s because of sin they think makes them unworthy or a lack of true belief or whatever it may be. But Jesus came and conquered everything so that every single person has the opportunity to walk into that father-daughter dance and dance with their Father.
and then – oh man – then he suggested that perhaps Satan attacks earthly fathers, that he allows people to experience such a poor experience of what a father is, because that screws up our ability to see what our heavenly Father is like, the one Jesus wanted us to know so badly he died to create a way for us.
It hit me in just the right place.
Once I post this, I will continue reading Donald Miller’s Searching for God Knows What (while devouring what’s left of this pot of coffee) and then run some errands. Today will be a good day. After all, it IS National Coffee Day!
So glad that the sermon ministered to you! I remember the first time I heard a sermon that challenged us about how the way we view our earthly father can impact the way we view our heavenly Father.
Also, I rarely drink coffee because caffeine makes me shaky all day long but I actually had some this morning. I am strangely proud of myself for inadvertently celebrating National Coffee Day.
First of all…$6.99 for a box of cereal?! I hope it was a huge box! I thought it was expensive around here, but it’s nowhere near $6.99!! Wow!
And I had no idea it was national coffee day. That’s funny because I have never been a coffee drinker. But on Monday it was feeling fall-ish and I have heard great things about the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks so I got myself one. It was delicious! So then yesterday I decided to try Dunkin Donuts, and when I got to the drive through menu, I was completely overwhelmed and just ordered a caramel latte (I think!) because it was the first thing I saw. Loved that too though! I think tomorrow morning I might just try a regular old cup of coffee that my mom makes. We’ll see.
And that sermon…? Wow. I got tears in my eyes just reading it. I can’t imagine if I had actually been there. I was raised in the church but I’m just starting out on this whole “having a relationship with God” aspect of it. Which is clearly the most important. I’m no longer just going through the motions like I have been doing for the last 22 years. But I loved the image the pastor gave. I keep reminding myself that I am good enoug for God, right where I am. And that little story gives me a lot to think about!
I honestly didn’t mean for this to be so long when I started it. I got a little carried away with the whole coffee history haha. Have a great night!
is there a link online for the sermon- I would love to listen,
happy coffee day!!- I’ll put the kettle on!
Hugs,
In His Grace,
C
@Leigh – how was it? did it make you shaky? Mine made me shaky; I had an interview and I had to demonstrate something and my hands were like super shaky. It was weird! Plus I was nervous, haha.
@Laura – oh! The coffee was $6.99 AND you got a big box of cereal for free with it! So the cereal is normally like $3.50, but was free99!! 🙂 Careful with getting too crazy about the coffee!! Definitely try it with some milk and sugar FOR SURE, if not creamer. Also another great one, and a very popular one, is the caramel macchiato. Hooray for your new adventure with coffee!! and also – hooray for your adventure into a relationship with God; it is a relationship, and it has its ups and downs, its closeness and its distance, its peace and its confusion. But it is good, oh so good.
@Carolyn – I keep checking the Faith podcast to see if it pops up, and I will let you know if it does 🙂
I was totally shaky! I tried a half caf half decaf blend, thinking it might have less of an effect but my hands were still shaky 8 hours later. That is some power!
Caffeine plus nerves…oh, I feel for you! Hope the interview went well!