Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas & A Very Happy New Year!

To all of my friends and readers who support this blog, I want to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! With all the trouble and turmoil that life brings our way throughout the year it is great to have a time that we can reflect on our lives and those loved ones in our lives and be grateful for our lives and for those loved ones in our lives. 

I know the holidays can be a rough time for many for lots of different reasons. If you are one of those people, I send out a special prayer and personal wish that this holiday season and year would be the one where that begins to change for the better. As I get older (almost 60) and health challenges come my way, I have (and am) learning to value my friends and loved ones in a much deeper way than I ever did when I was a young man in my 20's. With all of the things that happen in my life I am learning to trust God more each and every day. You who are reading this may or may not believe in God, be that as it may, I myself am more convinced every day that there is a God, and that he loves me and that he loves you.  

As Job said, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" and "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." How many of us who believe are possessed of enough faith to consistently think this way when we are going through troubled times? And yet through two bouts of cancer, this is the lesson that I am learning, accepting the will of God in my life and with that acceptance being blessed with "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." It is not about understanding why, it is about simple trust that there is a reason and that whether or not I know that reason is not important.

Each day brings challenges of it's own and how we respond to them is what matters. Some challenges are big and some are small, some are painful and some are sweet, some go by us unnoticed and others consume our every waking moment. Our responses over time define who we are and what we are.

There is a parable about "Carrots, Eggs, And Coffee" that is posted in many different versions, here is one of them:

Carrots, Eggs, And Coffee

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft and mushy. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hardened egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee.

The daughter smiled as she tasted its deep flavour and inhaled its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What's the point, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water - but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin, outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong? But with pain and adversity, do I wilt and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit but, after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water - the very circumstance that brings the adversity, the pain, the hardship – into something quite wonderful. When the water gets hot, it releases its fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better, and change the situation around you for the better.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level? How do you handle adversity?

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

(Somehow, wake up and smell the coffee takes on a whole new meaning)

-Author Unknown

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