coffee converts

My friend jumped into the passenger seat of my car.  She sniffed, then chuckled.  "Of course.  Amy's car would smell like coffee!"

What she actually smelling was a combination of  the new French Vanilla air freshener that I had just put up that morning, and my Starbucks Pike Place that I had grabbed on the way over.

But what she was alluding to was my (apparently) infectious and contagious love of coffee.

I don't know what it is that I like about it so much.  Wait, maybe I do.  The smell of it captivates me...my parents laugh at me when I walk into a Starbucks, close my eyes and just take a long, deep breath.  It probably has to do with the fact that pretty much every morning for my entire life has started with the smell of fresh coffee brewing.  Nostalgia?  Call it what you will.  I love it.  As for the taste.  Ha, we won't even go there.

Anyway, my friends tease me all the time about my love of coffee.  When two of my besties came over not too long ago, as they were stirring their cups of freshly brewed coffee they were remarking about how they actually never really liked coffee.

"I don't know... I never used to drink it.  Then I just started drinking it all of a sudden, and I don't know...wait..." they locked eyes, then turned and looked at me.

"What??" I shrugged.

"It's you!"

I raised an eyebrow, chuckled slightly and lifted the mug to my lips.  "I don't know what you're talking about."

Okay, so maybe I have a coffee addiction.  And maybe I talk about it too much ("it", meaning, the coffee itself).

But you know, I was thinking.  I so easily converted my friends over to coffee drinking.  How?

I shared my excitement.  I showed them the beauty of it.  The smells, the tastes, the different ways to fix it.

What if I put this same energy into telling others about Jesus?  Hmm.  Convicting thought.

I'm so passionate about something as carnal as coffee... why can't I have that same passion in God's love?

The beauty of it; the smell of it, the sights of it, the feel of it, the redemption in it.  The eternal value of it!

May my love and passion for Jesus be manifest in such a way that others will be drawn to Him; that they will smell His aroma on me, and desire to have Him too.  They will see His smile on my face, and yearn for His joy.  They will hear His heart beating through my voice, and desperately seek to find the center.

May my addiction to Jesus be contagious!

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place."  ~2 Corinthians 2:14