Adversity
A daughter complained to her father 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 all the fighting and struggling.
It seemed as though in solving one problem, two more would arise.
Her father, (a chef) took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots
with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil.
In one he placed carrots,
in the second he placed eggs,
and the last he placed ground coffee beans.
He let them sit and boil without saying a word. The daughter
impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty
minutes he turned off the burners.
He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the
eggs out and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and
poured it in a cup.
Turning to her he asked. "Darling, what do you see?"
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and
noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break
it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its
rich aroma. She humbly asked. "What does it mean Father?"
He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling
water, but each reacted differently. The carrots went in strong, hard,
and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, they
softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its
liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, the
insides became hardened.
However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were in the
boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you," he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on your
door, how do you respond?
Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?
How about you?
Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and adversity do you
wilt and become soft and lose your strength?
Are you the egg, which starts off with a changeable heart? Were you a
fluid spirit, but after difficult times, have you become hardened and
stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are you tough with a stiff
spirit and heart?
Or are you like the coffee bean?
The bean changes the hot water, the thing that is bringing the pain.
When the water reaches it’s peak temperature, it just tastes better.
If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get
better and make things better around you. When people talk about you,
do your praises to the Lord increase? When the hour is the darkest and
trials are their greatest, does your worship elevate to another level?
How do you handle adversity?
Are you a carrot,
an egg,
or a coffee bean?
"Please God, help me to be a coffee bean! Amen"
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