Sunday, November 25, 2012

Stirring Up the Pot

I had the pleasure of hearing a wonderful homily on Thanksgiving.

I wanted to pass it on to all of you (I'll paraphrase, of course).

Our priest commented that with so many negative things happening in our country right now, it is easy to question what God is doing during all this.

Unemployment is still high.

We just elected a president that does not share many of the same values as Catholics, namely pro-life initiatives.

Hurricane Sandy just wreaked havoc in the northeast, leaving many homeless.

Etcetera, etcetera.

He then gave us an analogy.

He told us that each morning, he makes instant coffee.  He puts two scoops of powdered coffee in a mug, then two packets of Splenda, and finally some creamer.  

Then he stirs it vigorously, and made the hand motion to emphasize the point.

Finally he adds steaming hot water, to make, in his words, a delicious cup of coffee.

He then asked those in attendance what ingredient made the coffee taste so great?

Was it the coffee?  The Splenda?  The water?

"No," he told us, shaking his head.  "It was the stirring."

Without the stirring, he said, the coffee would have tasted either too black, or too creamy, or too sugary.  

"It was the stirring that made the goodness come out," he said  as he smiled.

"And that is what I believe God is doing right now.  He is stirring all of us to bring out the sweetness... to make all the goodness come out."

What a beautiful perspective, on a day that begs us to look at the silver lining in everything and offer thanks.

God Bless.

5 comments:

Victor S E Moubarak said...

That's right Michael. God is allowing all these things to happen to see how we would react. And at all times, He is still in control.

God bless you, Michael.

Unknown said...

That is a great analogy by your priest. (Although I have a few things I could teach him about good coffee:)
I do tend to agree that God is stirring things up~hopefully more will pay attention to Him because of this stirring.
Thanks for stopping by the Front Porch earlier, Michael.
Hope you had a blessed day as well.

Shirley said...

Stirring us up is the only way to overcome complacency.

Thomas Fuller said...

Truly excellent - thanks for sharing this.

Michael said...

Victor - you are right. He is always in control, no matter how hard we try to take that away.

Karinann - I am laughing because I said the same thing about his taste in coffee. In his defense, he said he really likes the personal Keurig-type things, but they are too expensive for him to use every day.

Shirley - You are right. And we are a complacent people.

Thomas - thank you very much, and thanks for stopping by!

Colleen - Agree - although sometimes it sure is hard to see when caught up in the middle of it!

God Bless all of you