Meeting God Beyond the Coffee
I first came across Ellsworth’s My Coffee Cup Meditations when I joined the heady ranks of the newly-retired, free to travel, meet friends and pursue interests. Prayer, the bedrock of our relationship with God, became haphazard and was often relegated to the end of my day. My Coffee Cup Meditations introduced me to a novel solution: why not invite God to join me for coffee? The short reflective chapters in these slim books are a natural springboard for prayer, and I love a nice coffee! Sipping from my cup I would close my eyes and imagine Our Lord beside me. It became our special time together—just Him and me. I never felt the need to do anything, or even to say much. The closeness I felt was prayer enough. That all-important coffee motivated me to prioritize time for God, and those intimate sessions fed my soul as nothing else could.
That was then, but this is now. The global pandemic has unsettled everyone: people are dying, there is self-isolation, streets are empty, workers laid off, schools closed, church services canceled, gatherings banned, routines disrupted…and cabin fever is beginning to bite. If there is a single spiritual lesson to be learned from this pandemic, it is surely a greater understanding of the fragility of human life.
Is there an upside to all this? Yes—we now have lots of extra time!
God, who rejoices when we spend time with Him, has given us the gift of Time. The frenetic busyness of our daily lives has wound down giving us a golden opportunity to spend more time with Him. I may have tripped lightly with my Godly coffee sessions in the not-so-long-ago sunlit past, pitifully short as they often were, but I am thankful to My Coffee Cup Meditations for ensuring I did not lose my grip on making a regular time for prayer—something for which I now have all the time in the world.
Guest post kindly submitted by Mrs. Frith Robb, Edinburgh, Scotland
