Something brewing…

I stop at the same convenience store every morning to get my caffeinated beverage of choice. As I parked the other day, I noticed a car leaving with three men inside. One of them was just a minute or two away from getting a little surprise; on the roof of the car was a large styrofoam cup of coffee. It was too late for me to get the attention of anyone in the car, but I thought about what was likely to happen. Someone would say, “Hey, what’d I do with my —” just before coffee poured down the back window. Or maybe it would stay up there until the car made a stop, only then tumbling forward onto the windshield as if to say, “Remember me?” Would the man in the car laugh? Would he be mad? Would the other guys tease him?
It’s a sad thing to get what you need and then lose it. Or to have your big moment arrive, only to find you’re not prepared. One day when my daughter was about five, her preschool group made their own t-shirts. Lindsey drew a big horse head on her shirt—she was extremely fond of horses at the time. There was a large word balloon coming out of the horse’s mouth and he was saying, “Hello…uh…uh…well, never mind.” I instantly fell in love with this shirt and I still plan to get it framed to hang on my wall. That hapless horse had waited forever to get his moment in the spotlight and then…he had nothing to say.
Ever ask God for something and then, when you actually get what you’ve asked for, you don’t know what to do with it? I have. Several years ago, I asked God to help me love other people. And when it began to happen, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t say, “Uh…uh…never mind.” And I didn’t want to lose it, like a cup of coffee on a car roof. The only choice was to use it.
And—to borrow a line from Robert Frost—that has made all the difference.