On Making a Good Cup of Coffee

I don’t know what kind of coffee drinker you are. I don’t know if you are the “get it on your way to work,” the “Starbucks barista knows my order,” or the “constantly using my Keurig” kind of coffee person. I don’t know if you take it cold brew, french press, Fair Trade, cream and sugar, black, latte or cappuccino. Or, if you’re even a coffee person at all (bare with me if you aren’t). But if you are, there is a good chance you will feel my pain over what I am about to tell you.

For a while now—unless I am meeting a friend or someone I mentor at the local coffee shop—I have been making my coffee at home. A couple of Christmases ago, Tony bought me this fabulous coffee maker that grinds the beans before brewing. I love it.

But, sometimes, it doesn’t work.

Sometimes the water doesn’t filter through. It gets trapped in the filter basket, and if I am making a big pot, it overflows. Watery coffee goes everywhere. Other times, the grinds get into my coffee. I have to strain them out so I am not chewing my morning cup. Or worse, I turn it on and nothing happens.

By now, you may be wondering why I haven’t returned this coffee maker that I profess to love. As coffee drinkers, we know, there is no messing with our morning cup. Only, when my coffee maker spews water or pours chewy grinds, it is not because it’s broken. The problem, is usually me.

When the water doesn’t filter through, it is because I forgot to put the lid on the coffee pot that pushes up the spring on the filter basket, releasing the coffee. When there are grinds in my coffee, it is because I put my beans in the grinder, but forgot to put the filter in the basket to catch them. And when I turn it on and nothing happens—chances are, I forgot to put water in the tank.

Coffee drinkers should not have to remember such hard things before their first cup of coffee. And yet, a good cup of coffee isn’t made when the coffee maker doesn’t have all it’s parts. The same can be said for our lives.

In our world today, we all live at such a frantic pace that many of us are prone to forgetting the very pieces of our lives that make things work. We get caught on the hamster wheel of success or survival, and the very things we need the most are often the first things to go. Eating healthy, exercise, time with friends, time with family, time with God—all the things that fill, restore, and energize us are the things we think are “extra.” They are the things we think we can do “later.” Yet over time, they are the reason things begin to break down.

With my beautiful coffee maker, I have made enough bad cups of coffee to know that all of it’s parts are important. Yet I still forget sometimes. The same is true in my life. When things get busy, I let go of the things I need the most—good food to stay healthy, exercise to help manage stress, and time with God and loved ones to refill spiritually and emotionally. Within a few days or a week, I begin to feel depleted. I am not pleasant to be around. And things begin to unravel. Sort of how many of us feel without coffee, only worse.

But, when I am able to keep these key parts of my life in place in the midst of feeling overwhelmed and stressed—that is when I am able to weather life’s storms so much better. Just as my coffee maker needs all of it parts, you and I need all of the pieces that make up a healthy life. As people and leaders, we can no longer pretend that taking care of ourselves is optional. Rather, like my coffee maker, we need to see that if we want something good to come out of our lives, all of our pieces need to be in place.