Pilgrim Heart

In Praise of Coffee (Again)

In the days and weeks following Christmas I was very tired - I couldn't really work out why. Yes I was busy, no I probably wasn't quite getting enough sleep (I've always loved the juxtaposition of these 2 verses!) but none of that was out of the ordinary.

Now I've often heard it said that coffee makes you tired, the caffeine boost will always be followed by a low and the outcome is to be more tired in the end; so I tried to cut down on coffee. It wasn't hard, I didn't get headaches or anything - I got in touch with my feminine side by drinking tea and even hot water and lemon, and guess what? I was still just as tired.

So, now I'm back on the coffee and feeling much less sleepy. I suspect that these things are all just co-incidence, but I certainly feel that I've disproved the "coffee makes you tired" mantra - at least for me! Hmmm, I think I'll have another cup....

Word of Warning

Yesterday I had a Gingerbread Latte at Starbucks - not a good experience! It was sickly sweet with virtually no coffee in it. Serves me right for breaking my own bah-humbug principle of avoiding anything Christmassy until 1 week before the big day!

Good to spend some time with my friend Chris though!

Coffee

Now I know that posts about food and drink always seem to go down well, so here is another one in praise of coffee. My local petrol station now has a coffee nation machine - it's great!

What I particularly like is that the extra shot of espresso (essential!) is free. And coffee nation's website has a facility for planning your journey to stop off at services stations that sell their coffee!

Doing a lot of travelling around in evenings, or off early to appointments I think that this is another welcome development of the modern society! Good coffee at any time, virtually anywhere!

I have been dipping into a book not listed on my recommended reading list, You Are What You Eat, lately. It really is quite unbelievable - the page listing all the things you should never eat would be a page in my book called "all my favourite things to eat", and the pages and pages of things that are "super-foods" aren't really food at all, eg blue-green algae powder (that's dried scum to you and me!) and wheat-grass juice (which has to be juiced as this superfood cannot be digested by the human body!).

One thing you should never ever allow to pass you lips (so the book says) is coffee! WHAT? If I am what I eat I would love to be coffee: dark, strong, hot, a wonderfully attractive aroma, stimulating, irresistible, has the ability to stand on its own but also compliments and works well with others... particularly muffins...

The Apogee of Civilisation

I've had a day off today (well until 6.30 tonight!) and I my wife and I went to visit the new Borders/Starbucks store that has opened in Coventry. To me a bookstore the size of a warehouse with its own coffee shop is very close to heaven on earth!

It's opening has also restored my faith in my city - Coventry - as being truly part of the civilised world! Right next door to Borders is the new Ricoh Arena: a 32,000 seat stadium for Coventry City - which will probably be 3 seats each for an average gate - plenty of room to spread out! At least when I have grandchildren I'll be able to say, "I remember the old days when we used to stand on the terraces at Highfield Road and watch Premiership football."

Anyway, back to books and coffee. There are some things in life that just go together aren't there? And equally somethings that don't. If we look out for it, everyday life will always speak to us of the nature of God. God has ordained somethings that go together and some things that should have nothing to do with one-another: God hates mixture. The Bible says, "what fellowship has light with darkness?" [2 Corinthians 6:14].

Next time you take a break and you're doing something you enjoy, I expect there will be something in it that will speak to you of the nature of God - he's the one that invented recreation and the concept of living life to the full after all! The world around us is designed to speak to us about God: the Bible says, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made." [Rom 1:20].

So when you take a break, sit back, drink it in and enjoy!