Just in case this is not common knowledge, I used to work in a coffee shop. I learned a lot over my 2.5 years of working there, but still don't know that much about coffee. I did however learn more about people and how most of them believe they need coffee to survive. Much the same way a car runs on gasoline, the college students who came in were just trying to keep going. Whether it was early in the morning or late into the night, coffee provided the sustenance needed to function. And it is not just college kids, I have noticed that older adults have the same dependence on the bean based beverage, many of them unable "to be myself" or "act decent/civil" without ingesting at least one cup. The addiction runs deep.
Don't get me wrong, I am no tea-drinking King George loyalist. I drink coffee just like any true red blooded American. I take it black and drink it summer or winter rain or shine. I only drink tea iced and sweet like normal people. I find myself buying into this idea that without coffee, I can't make it. Drinking it when I wake up, and sometimes at night to stay awake. I find myself believing that i need the caffeine to function, because doesn't everyone? I can stay up as late as needed/I want to with help from coffee, and still get up early with the help of coffee. I can even eat food that makes me feel sluggish, because after all I have coffee.
Then I get a good night's sleep. I wake up feeling ready to tackle the day, and skip the cup of coffee. I feel alert and productive and go the whole day without drinking the coffee; a feat I previously thought impossible. I begin to wonder why I even drink coffee, and I slowly start to realize that coffee is a crutch. I can treat my body however I want--deprive myself of sleep, eat junk that does not provide me energy, work too much--because if I feel tired I can just drink some coffee. I can also be irresponsible--procrastinate work to the point I have to stay up all night doing it, or wake up super early to do it--because who needs sleep when I have coffee. Coffee is an excuse to live however I want with seemingly no real consequences.
I wonder if that is how I approach other things in my life. I wonder if I treat church like that? Do I just live however I want to, because after all I go to church on Sunday, that makes me a Christian, I'm on the "good" list. Do I treat Jesus like that? Do I live however I want to because, in the end, Jesus will just forgive me?
Paul asks a similar situation in the book of Romans. He writes in Romans 6:1-4
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
It seems to me, that Jesus isn't a fall back, or a safety net. Just like with coffee, I can't just do whatever I want and not expect consequences. I have to take care of my body if I want to get the most out of it. Jesus' forgiveness is not an excuse to do whatever makes me feel good, or get my way; it is a gateway into a new way of life, a better more fulfilling way of life.
This is not a post to get you stop drinking coffee. This is just a musing of a modern-day sasquatch
