Carrots, Eggs, and Coffee

I found this little story somewhere. It has a good point to it.

 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience, hope:  And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:3-6)

A young woman went to her grandmother and told her about life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes, she removed the pots from the stove.

She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee and beans out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”

“Carrots, eggs and coffee” the granddaughter replied. Her grandmother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The grandmother then asked the girl to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hardboiled egg. Finally, the grandmother asked her granddaughter to sip the coffee. The girl smiled. As she tasted its rich aroma, she asked, “What does it mean?”

Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity – boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its insides became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her granddaughter.

When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May we all be COFFEE!!!!!!

A Cross is to Die On

I saw a post about the Cross this morning.   It spoke of hanging our problems on the cross, the worries, the obstacles, the unanswered prayers, the heartaches and loss.  It was a beautiful concept but it didn’t really represent The Cross.

We have glamorized the cross in religion today.  It is like a magic token.  We hang them in our vehicles.  We put them on poles outside. We display them on the front of our churches.  We wear them on our lapels and around our necks.   We hold them in our hands with a string of beads when we pray.  We see them made of marble, alabaster, ebony, gold, silver, granite, mahogany and all other sorts of precious materials.  And I guess, for those of us who have been born again, the cross DOES represent a beautiful concept.  Christ loved us enough to voluntarily give up his life to die on one.

But long long ago, brother Emerson Wilson preached a sermon that has stuck with me for probably fifty years.  In his sermon he said, “A cross is to die on.”

When we “take up our cross” we are to die on it. We die to our selfish desires. We die to our own goals and motives. We die to getting our own way.  We die to following worldly ways.  We die to ‘the old man.’ 

Christ died on His Cross.  He rose to an eternal life, far better than the earthly flesh.

The next time you hang that pretty cross around your neck. Or pin it to your lapel. Or hang it on the wall of your house.  Think about it.  Have YOU died on that cross? Have you died to the ‘sin that so easily besets’ us all. Have you died to ‘doing your own thing?’ Have you died to your addictions to alcohol, drugs, sex?

A cross isn’t a pretty thing of sentiment. A cross is to die on.