Anyone who knows me would tell you I am a coffee lover. Some would go so far as to say I am a coffee snob. There’s something about coffee that warms the heart and awakens the soul (they tell me it’s caffeine).
Anyone who knows me would tell you I am a coffee lover. Some would go so far as to say I am a coffee snob. There’s something about coffee that warms the heart and awakens the soul (they tell me it’s caffeine). For several years I served as the “Chartered Organization Representative” for the Boy Scout Troop at North Webster UMC. We went on some pretty epic adventures, but none stands out more than our trip to South Dakota. Being that we were going to be in the middle of nowhere for a week and change, I decided it was in my best interest to bring supplies for making coffee on my own. I purchased a small burner, several canisters of fuel, a camp stove percolator, and several bags of coffee. I was prepared for the apocalypse. It’s a good thing too, because the apocalypse came.
During our trip the boys continued to talk about a night “under the stars.” The weather had been less than cooperative, so we were forced to hold off until our very last night. The day of our expedition, we struck camp, loaded everything into the vehicles and trailer and headed to our launch point. We parked our vehicles, grabbed our backpacks and supplies, and began a two-mile trek into the middle of nowhere. We found a flat, grassy spot on top of a hill with a great view of the surrounding area. We pulled out our tarps and sleeping bags and began setting up camp. As we were setting up camp, a line of thick dark clouds appeared to our west. We could hear thunder and see the lightning in the clouds and they were coming at us fast. There was no way we could outrun it back to our vehicles. We quickly got the boys into the few tents we had on hand and we adults jumped under our tarps and prepared for the storm to hit.
Within minutes, our night under the stars became a night in the storm. The rain came down so hard and heavy that it forced its way through the tarps. The rain turned to chunks of hail. The wind began to blow even harder. Suddenly, I heard the voices of boys crying and leaders attempting to give instructions. I jumped out of my tarp and saw the rain fly of one of our tents flying in the air like a parachute, pulling the tent flat on top of the boys. Another tent suffered a broken pole and was also laying on its side. We put all of the boys in our two remaining tents and the leaders circled up under a few tarps.
As we stood wet and shivering under tarps and soaked sleeping bags, one of the adults jokingly made a comment about how nice it would be to have something hot to drink. My mind quickly snapped back to attention and I remembered that in true Boy Scout form, I was prepared for just such an instance. I ran over to my backpack, pulled out a small plastic baggy filled with coffee grounds, grabbed brewing materials, and headed back to the circle. I fired up the stove, prepped the percolator with coffee and water, and in minutes we were finding new hope and joy as we sipped hot coffee, even as the storm continued to rage around us. To this day, it amazes me how a few grounds of coffee beans could bring hope and joy in the midst of the uncertain and the undesirable.
Jesus told His followers that faith tends to work that way. Just a little goes a long way. Just a little proves to be more than enough.
Jesus told His followers that faith tends to work that way. Just a little goes a long way. Just a little proves to be more than enough. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” A mustard seed isn’t much bigger than a coffee ground. Jesus tells us just a granular of faith in Him will provide all we need to not only face the opposition that will come our way, but to find victory over it.
Opposition will come in this life. The mountains we face will be many. In those moments when we find ourselves face-to-face with the uncertain and the undesirable, we must hold firm to our faith in Jesus. Even when that faith is shaken and shattered, there is still hope. We don’t need a mountain of faith to make it through. A little is more than enough for Jesus to make the mountains move so that we might follow Him through to the other side.
