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Agape Part II

I normally try not to have blog inspiration and write it on the same day but this is an exception. I was reading my verse of the day on my daily calendar and stumbled upon something so “God”:

Have you ever waited for someone? Something? Maybe an answer to a question. Or maybe good news or bad news. Those minutes, or days, or year, seem so much longer than they actually are. Here’s a passage from 2 Peter Chapter 3

8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Ok…there is way too much to break down in this that applies to my life. Lets start with verse 9…simply stated, my understanding of “slowness” and my understanding of “a long time” is very different from God’s understanding of it. Here’s what that means. He is patient, and not wanting anyone to perish, and wanting everyone to repent. So everyday that goes by where our hearts are hard to Him, and we are sinning and not turning from that sin…to God, that feels like a thousand years. Why? Because it breaks God’s heart when we turn from Him. It breaks it so much, that God once said He regretted putting humans on the earth!

But…(usually the best statement in the bible…) He is also patient. He would easily and willingly wait thousands of years for one person to repent, and it would seem like only a couple of days to God. Also, when we do repent, we are glorifying Him. After this earth, those that chose God will forever glorify Him…and because we’ll be complete, the thousands and thousands and thousands of years that will make up “never ending”, will never get boring. Because to us, it would be like one day.

So, are you coming to Him with your broken heart, or breaking His? Is forever going to seem like one day, or like thousands and thousands and thousands of years?
What is your understanding of slowness?

What are you waiting for? If Jesus can wait 2,000 years for His bride (which is the church), then what’s a couple of hours, or days or months or years to wait for something for us?

Agape part I

Since I have a week left, I want to use a Starbucks reference to start this blog off.

My favorite coffee/food pairing is the Verona coffee with the chocolate hazelnut biscotti. Let me tell you, if you’ve never tried them together, it is an experience. The biscotti is super sweet on its own. The coffee, on the other hand, is rather acidic on its own, but has a definite cocoa and nutty flavor to it. Which is why they go together. The cocoa and the nuttiness fit nicely together and the sweetness and acidity balance each other out.

Now, personally, I have a sweet tooth, so I love the biscotti, and the coffee is pretty good if you brew it right. But on a personal preference level, I like the sweetness over the coffee. So when these two things mix, they take something from the other and give something of themselves. According to me, the coffee gets the better end of the deal, losing some of its acidity and gaining sweetness

Where the heck am i going with this?

We get the better end of the deal with God. He gives us grace and forgiveness and mercy and love and strength and kindness while we give Him our brokenness, sin, filth, shortcomings, heartbreaks, confusion, and lies. In this relationship we are coffee.

But, as someone who desires to be more like Christ everyday, in my relationships with other people, I need to be biscotti. If Christ gives US all those things, how much more should i afford the people in my life things like grace and forgiveness and mercy?

Even when people bad mouth me, curse me, pass rumors, break my heart, hate me, kick me out, wish bad things upon me…I am called to give them forgiveness and love and faithfulness and time and trust…and the more I do, the less all those other things will bother me because I’ll be more focused on following the Only One who won’t do all of those things

(And if you were in my Bible as Lit class…the capital O’s in the last sentence are thanks to your friendly English Translator)

Know Home

Warm coffee odor hangs in the air
The coldness burns my fingers when I open the window

What if I experienced more of the burn and less of the warm?
People outside live the burn
Know no home
Live the burn…know no home

“Last night I found this great bush…”

Know home…

Choice, mistake or failure
Know no home

My work has a heater,
my car has a heater,
my home has 2…
But I know home,
I live the warm

The burn I feel for 40 seconds
as i open the window
to deliver
$5.00 coffee
to someone whose world…
…has 4 heaters

Someone who knows home…

Call him what you will
but that bum
that drunk
that failure
needs Jesus as much as i do tonight.

And all he wants
is to
know
Home

…and me

One of my favorite songs is Train “Drops of Jupiter” and there’s one part that i particularly like it goes like this

Can you imagine no love
pride
deep fried chicken
your best friend always sticking up for you…even when i know you’re wrong

Can you imagine no first dance
freeze dried romance
5 hour phone conversations
the best soy latte that you ever had
…and me

Today, for the first time in my Starbucks career, someone ordered a soy latte…

Touching huh?