Starbucks, downtown DC. It is a good place to find an inauspicious corner and observe the mosaic of life. Two men over there are networking, getting their foot in the door to the new administration. Two old hippie-types enter in flagrantly anti-Bush t-shirts. People are texting, conversing with their friends across the table and across the world on matters great and small. A line forms at the counter as people seek repose from the blustery November afternoon. And I look down at my coffee cup, sip the bitter roast and see in it a powerful metaphor.
I’m really growing to enjoy black coffee. For the past two weeks I’ve abstained from all cream and sugar and found in it an immensely enlightening experience. I used sugar (substitutes) to numb my taste buds to the bitterness, but at the same time escaped a lot of the richness in the grind. Now I can really taste coffee. I can tell a good roast from an inferior one. I love my coffee and its satisfying bitterness.
I am reminded here of an article I read by Carolyn McCulley called Eat Bitter. Read it if you have a moment. And from there I turn to 2 Corinthians 12:10 where Paul, speaking of his thorn in the flesh rejoiced even in its persistence, for when he was weak, then he became strong. James 2 says, “Count is all joy my brothers when you face trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”
It’s easy to douse suffering in the sweeteners of life. These are things that aren’t really good for us, though not bad in moderation. However, their flaw is that they mask the taste of the bitter cup of suffering. It is this suffering that produces the gold, refined through the fire. In attempting to eradicate the bitterness we also miss the richness. The richness of living in weakness, in pain, in the hand of God Almighty who sustains his children in weakness. Now, lest you misunderstand, I’m not suggesting that we live complacently in bitter circumstances brought about by sin in our lives. In those times we should be cutting off the hand and gouging the eye. But when God places us in circumstances completely within His will we should, as Jim Eliot so aptly told Elizabeth, “be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”
DC is a “type-A” city. You notice this if you sit in Starbucks for three seconds. Relationships are about networking, time is of the essence, we’re all trying to get ahead, to make the most of our lives, our talents, our resources. We strive for a painless, prosperous life and see this as our right – “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Those words are, after all, enshrined in this great city. Unfortunately, this “type-A” mentality of mine often seeps into my spiritual life. When I’m suffering I feel that I’m not “getting ahead” and I’ll do whatever necessary to change that. Immediately! I often find myself striving to change circumstances on my own timetable, outside of God’s perfect provision. But when we step back, when we drink the black coffee, the bitter cup, there we find a richness beyond compare. We find that God’s greatest gifts are bestowed in moments of weakness and brokenness.
Paul says, “For I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” (Philippians 4:11-12) When I can say this with Paul it is then that I find grace beyond compare. I find a God who is richer, a Word that is more powerful, a heart weakened and malleable.
So, if you are tempted to cease rejoicing in suffering - for you, there is a Starbucks just around the corner.
