Caffeine High

So I'm sitting in a coffee shop right now drinking my caramel mocha. I LOVE coffee. It's kind of a new trend now days I guess. I can't figure out if coffee has always been this prominent in our society or if I am just noticing it because I have a growing awareness of my NEED for the Caffeine. I'm soooo addicted. I don't know about you but when I drink coffee I get the biggest caffeine high ever and it feels GREEEAAT.....for several hours. But then it hits me. The allusive WALL. After the high has worn off my body goes into shut-down mode. I'm dragging, I'm sluggish, I'm exhausted, I'm drained, I'm empty, I'm depleated. Need I go on? I'm dead, useless, stick a fork in me, I'm done.

I'm a sports fanatic. I play college baseball and love playing any other kind of pick-up game I can! I'm not saying I'm that good, but I love competition. I'm extremely competitive in anything I do. I'm one of those kinds of people that you don't want to play monopoly or risk with because I'm "in it to win it." Ok that was a gay saying, but I will go crazy when playing anything because I want to be the best! I want to win! So if I were to got out on the playing field after having toxicated on vanilla lattes or caramel mochas man I would be jacked....for a whole three minutes. Once I sweat all that caffeine out of my system I would be done. So do I tank up on coffee before going to play? No. I eat carbs. Complex carbs and proteins. Sustaining energy! That way I can woop you all up and down the field, no matter what we're playing! Ha!

Okay, so I'm sipping this mocha, thinking about the Caffeine high I'm gonna have for the rest of the day (coffee affects me in extreme ways--I'll have a caffeine high for several hours off one cup of coffee; most people have to refill every couple of hours to keep the high but not me!) and the low that will hit me tonight and all of a sudden the light bulb goes off. We look for Caffeine highs in life. We are caffeinated by what the world throws at us. It's sad really. So often people search for that fix that will create a high for them NOW, but they don't think about how they will feel LATER; the high is only temporary. The next morning they're pouring their soul (and last night's dinner) out to the porcelain god, prostrate on the tile altar of cool redemptive purging. Or better yet, when the high has subsided it's time to find a stronger one. Weed addicts look for the stronger buzz in cocaine and an even stronger high in heroine.

So if you're reading this and you're thinking to yourself, "I'm not an alcohic or a crack addict, what does this have to do with me?" Well, I implore you, GET OFF YOUR SELF-RIGHTEOUS HIGH HORSE and read on. Wow, that just came out. This coffee does some strange things to me. Christians and "morally upstandard" people do this too. Relationships for instance. Let's find our high in "love," or better termed "lust." There is a reason the divorce rate in America is over 50% and the average marriage lasts 7 years! We're looking for that immediate gratification finding it at another human being's expense. To borrow a famous line coined by the great Righteous Brothers "You've lost that loving feeling. . .now you're GONE, GONE, GONE." What kind of men is our society raising today that they would run away with their tails tucked between their legs in hard times? Hmmmm....that's another topic for another day....where were we.....oh yeah.....caffeine highs.....

. . .What about money? We look for caffeine highs in money, too. I watch Jim Cramer all the time....You know Mad Money?....He's so intense, it's awesome! Boo Ya! Yeah you know it well. His aim in life is to get himself and other people rich. Why does he want to get other people rich--to make himself RICHER of course. But all that money is nothing in the long run. Why do you think there are so many suicides in Hollywood alone? Is it because of the stressful work place? Right (sarcastically typed). Who wouldn't want to be waited on hand and foot by everyone? No! It's because they've come to realize a simple truth. No dollar amount can buy you happiness. No platinum Visa card can find you peace. No Swiss bank account can provide fulfillment or contentment.The Bible says in Matthew 16:26, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole World and yet lose his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul" (paraphrased).

What about those of us in ministry? Do you think we're excluded from this? We pour ourselves, our time, our money, our family into ministering to people becuase we have found this Caffeine high of results-oriented ministry. What happens when the results don't follow? We are sunk into an extreme low! We are drained and we blaim it on other people with the simple, "People suck" adage. I do it too. Where do we find our sustanence? Where do we find contentment in life even when we don't see progress, or light, or happiness? Are we truly establishing a relationship with our Savior and finding joy in Him? Are we really pouring ourselves into His Word everyday? Just a thought.

What about bread though? I love bread! Have you ever been to Olive Garden and tasted the breadsticks that they give you for appetizers. I always get full off the bread because it is SOOOOO good! And then I'm too full to eat my fetuccine alfredo that I ordered. Or what about Red Lobster? I could eat those cheese biscuits for the rest of my life and never get tired of them!! How awesome are those!!?? Jesus made an extreme claim in John 6:35. He said "I am the bread of life." He didn't say I'm the caramel mochiato of life, or the peppermint latte of life. As good as that would have tasted to those people back in the day He knew they needed something more to survive! We need bread! I hear about all of these no carb diets where you're not allowed to eat bread, and I can't help but wonder if that is a ploy by the devil to try to get people to forget the NECESSARY quality of bread. But just like any of those other fad diets (atkins, etc.) it will wear off. People cannot reject that bread is necessary.

I live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Roll Tide! Anyways, it never snows here. NEVER! Well there was that one exception in '93 when the "Great blizzard of '93" hit. People were immobilized for weeks during that! We do get that occasional scare of ice and sleet, though. What happens in the South when the weather advisory board puts out a winter weather warning? People go nuts! All of a sudden all of Hades breaks loose and the lines in the Food Max and SuperWalmart are out the door! What is it that people are buying? French Vanilla lattes? Candy? NOOO!! It's bread and milk. You can't find bread on the shelf for days after one of those scares. People around here go crazy thinking that the blizzard of '93 has come to exact its revenge on the poor, pitiful people of the South! You cannot deny your reliance on bread!

So how can we deny our dependence on Jesus Christ, the bread of LIFE? And once we've recognized that Jesus is necessary for survival how do we feed off His bread? Pour yourself into His Word! He's written it down right there for everyone to eat. The Bible is not just the breadsticks given to paid customers at Olive Garden, it's a free buffet, open to anyone who wants to feed off Jesus Christ! Get to know the Bread of Life and forget the caffeinated promises of the world. The high you get in Jesus is far greater and much longer-lasting than anything the world can offer you! It's ETERNAL!!