How to become coffee

A dear friend of mine posted a blog a while back with a story she had read about a young woman that was telling her mom about the hard time she was having in her life and her mom just went into the kitchen and filled three pots with water and put them on the stove. After the pot started boiling she put carrots in one, eggs in one, and coffee beans in the last pot. After the a while she took the carrots and put them in a bowl and she did the same with the eggs and coffee. The mom asked the young woman what she saw. The story goes on to tell that the carrots started off as strong and came out weak and the eggs started out weak ended up hard but the coffee changed the water. It goes on to about how each faced the same adversity but each reacted differently. The author goes on to ask which one the daughter is and yadda yadda yadda.

It was a good story that is meant to make us stop and think about how we handle life. Do we start strong and end up weak like the carrots? Or do we start off weak and end up hard like the eggs? Or Do we change the water like the coffee? I want to be like coffee but sometimes I just have nothing left to give to change where I am at or the people around me. Other times being hard is the easiest thing to do. Everyone wants to change the world but so few of us do. How do be be more like coffee?

Now if I was a drink I would be coffee. I can be some what of a coffee snob, that is to say I know my coffee. Coffee beans need to be ground the soaked in water before they are anything you want to put in you mouth (unless covered in chocolate but that is another story for another day). The coffee become what is supposed to be after it faces the adversity. Whoa deep, I know but think about it the coffee isn't good as grounds in a can or beans in bag (even though I love eating coffee beans... again another day...). They need to boiling water (the adversity) to become a cup of Joe (what they are meant to be). Now I don't know the author of the story or what he or she really meant by it so I can only give you what I think the story is trying to say. To me it means that we have to face the adversity in life to become who we are supposed to be.

I'm not very old but in looking back at my life the things that have shaped me the most were the hard times. They are what taught me to be strong and showed me who I am. None of this to say I was on my own I know God was with me during the hardest times of my life and He will always be with me but it was through the hard times it showed me who I can be though Him. God uses the adversity to show us what we are made of and to bring us closer to Him, however that only works if we let Him. God isn't going to force us to do anything. If we chose to close off and become hard God will let us but He never stops wanting the best for our hearts. He wants us to learn and use what learn to help others.

It's easy to sit here at the library and act like I know what I am talking about when in reality this has been the hardest month of my life and I'm trying not to be a carrot or an egg. I'm just trying to find my place in this world like so many others my age. I'm trying to let God teach me through these though times in my life so I can one day better the world or help one person in their life. Someone once said that life was hard but beautiful and I'm just starting to understand what they meant.