From Our Associate Pastor: God Bless the Coffee!
As someone who grew up on watered down church coffee, I’m far from a coffee snob. I’ll drink just about
anything. This lack of pickiness means I developed a pretty mean caffeine habit in my adult life. However, over the past year or so, I’ve made a pretty earnest attempt to get my
intake in check. I try to limit myself to three caffeinated drinks a day, and I stop drinking caffeine by 2 p.m.
Of course, those habits went out the window when I took five college students on a spring break service trip to Memphis in late February. I didn’t ingest the same amount of caffeine I regularly consumed in college, but I came close. There were lots of early mornings, long days, and many, many hours in the church’s transit van. That means an extra morning cup of coffee or an afternoon Diet Coke were
much-needed Godsends.
One of the many organizations the college students and I volunteered at was a place called Manna House, which offers hospitality to Memphis’ unhoused population. Lucky for me, Manna House also serves coffee and lots of it. Volunteers brew strong Folger’s coffee in giant 100-cup urns so that each person that passes through for a shower or a change of clothes is greeted with a cup. The Manna House organizers also
intentionally leave cream and sugar out on a table so visitors decide for themselves just how sugary or creamy they want their cup of joe. Coffee is so essential to the ministry of Manna House that it’s part of the homegrown liturgy recited before the center opens each morning.
God bless the coffee! Make it hot!
God bless the sugar! Make it sweet!
God bless the creamer! May it take away all life’s bitterness!
My time at Manna House reminded me that a cup of coffee made to your specifications is a small but necessary act of grace that’s worth celebrating. In my day-to-day life, I’m not nearly as grateful as I should be. Throughout that week in Memphis, God reminded me over and over again of the power of ordinary
blessings. Whether it be your daily coffee habit or your evening walk, may you, too, find God’s presence in the ordinary yet precious things of life this Easter season.
God bless the coffee!
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Haley Hansen