I must seriously confess that all my life I have given in to habits and rituals. I don’t like to say that, but it’s the truth. At this point, I don’t know the difference between a habit and a ritual.
A ritual that I have is when I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is have a good cup of hot coffee. This is what really gets me going in the morning. You don’t want to meet me before I have my cup of joe in the morning.
There was a time when I changed my habit and drank hot tea in the morning. I thought it could be a different change in my life. Believe me when I tell you that it was a change. You didn’t want to meet me after drinking my hot tea in the morning. In fact, I didn’t even recognize myself after that cup of hot tea.
Every night before we go to bed, the Gracious Mistress of the rectory prepares the coffee pot to turn off in the morning, so it’s ready when I get up. I’m not sure how many years she’s done that, but she did it today, and that’s all she counts on her.
There is something in coffee that increases my energy every day. I don’t know what it is, but I’m okay with it as long as I do that.
When I was young at home, I never liked coffee. Later I realized it was because my parents used instant coffee. When I got real coffee, I never went back to that instant coffee nonsense.
The other morning something different happened.
I got up in the morning, as always, I went to prepare my coffee. I’m not really that awake at this time of day, but it’s a routine, and I just went through the routine of making my coffee and then going to my chair and having my morning devotions.
Everything went well until the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage walked into the room where I was, stood there looking at me, and finally said, “How was your coffee this morning?”
I smiled back and enthused, “That’s the best coffee I’ve had all day.”
She smiled.
When she smiles at me, I know something is wrong. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was wrong so early in the morning. Here I was, I’m having my coffee, I’m reading my Bible, and she comes up with this kind of query.
“So,” she said hesitantly, “is your coffee this morning normal?”
I laughed and said, “Just like my coffee every morning.”
“Maybe you should look at your coffee again,” he said.
As I looked at my coffee, it looked a little different. The coffee was whiter than usual, but that’s all I could see.
“Take a sip and tell me what you think.”
I took a sip, it was hot and I didn’t notice any difference.
Perhaps this will be my problem for a lifetime. When I have some kind of habit and I go to a ritual, I don’t realize what is happening. Isn’t that what a habit is supposed to do?
“For your information,” my wife said with a bit of sarcasm, “I forgot to put the coffee beans in the pot last night. All you have in the pot is hot water.”
I laughed out loud. I looked at her, thinking of course that she was trying to trick me into doing something. Then she brought the coffee pot and showed it to me. Sure enough, the water in the coffee pot was water and not coffee.
I didn’t know what was happening. I just looked at her with a spirit of disbelief. I couldn’t understand what I did wrong.
She looked at me, and her smile faded, and then she confessed. “I forgot to put the ground coffee in the pot. That’s why the water is clear. It was my mistake.”
For the Gracious Lady of the Parsonage, confessing to some wrongdoing is a moment in marital history.
I stared at her for a few moments, not knowing what to think, and then burst out laughing hilariously. “So, I’m not going to have coffee this morning.”
We laughed together for a few moments, then she went back to the kitchen and made the coffee again, and this time she didn’t forget to put the ground coffee in the pot.
As I drank the royal coffee, I pondered the subject for a bit. How many times am I doing that kind of thing in my daily life? Maybe I’m going through certain rituals and habits and don’t realize that I’m not really doing what I think I’m doing.
Like I thought I was drinking coffee, maybe there are times when I think I’m doing what God wants me to do, and maybe I’m not, I’m just going through the motions.
As I read the Scriptures that morning, I read: “This is a faithful word, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, so that those who have believed in God may try to keep good works. These things are good and profitable for men.” (Titus 3:8).
Every day my goal is to make sure that I am carefully doing what God wants me to do for his honor and glory.