Do you enjoy a cup of coffee? To some that morning cup of hot java is akin to the elixir of life. Growing up I only knew of coffee having a singular flavor, yet as I’ve grown older I’ve learned there are a myriad of coffee flavors and types. With my kids and friends of the Starbucks generation I’ve learned of many different coffee blends, and that “grande” is used for coffee sizing and not just in a Mexican restaurant.
Of all the things I’ve learned about coffee over the years, the most important is this:
My wife is much more pleasant after she has had a cup of coffee in the morning.
It’s like starting your car on a very cold morning. The engine turns over but everything is sluggish to begin with. After a few minutes, the fluids in the car warm, and it responds smoothly. That is my wife’s morning relationship with her coffee. We even joke about it. “B.C.” in our house can often mean “Before Coffee”, as in,
“I didn’t hear that properly, that was B.C. (Before Coffee).”
The Dreaded Skunky Coffee
Recently, I was informed that the coffee didn’t taste as good as used to. So we tried another brand, and it didn’t tasted right either. Another brand was tried, and it didn’t taste quite right either. We tried even another brand, and received the same results. Our coffee at home was bordering on being “skunky”. We cleaned the pot and the brewer, but there was no change. The fullness of flavor that she had grown accustomed to when brewing her coffee was missing. She was no longer enjoying the coffee she was having in the morning.
As we began to look at new coffee machines, I was puzzled by what could have made things change so drastically. As I looked at the different models I ran across a piece of information that I had been missing. I had been missing it because the owner’s manual to our coffee maker had disappeared some time back. Yet online I saw a reference to a secondary water filter down in our machine.
Apparently that was the first filter that the water went through before it was heated and used to brew the coffee. It happened to be a “B.C. (Before Coffee)” filter that was causing the issue!
Being the dutiful husband, I ordered a replacement filter and changed it out. After making a fresh pot of coffee, my wife tasted it and pronounced it “good”, and balance was restored to the universe, beginning in our home.
The coffee beans we were using hadn’t been bad. The water we were using hadn’t been bad. It was the filter that the water was going through that had tainted the taste and made it less desirable.
Sitting with a warm cup of proper tasting coffee, I began to think about how we hear is often like our experience with the “skunky” coffee.
Checking Our Own Filter
Relationships are often made more difficult because of a dirty filter that we hear with. The words that are spoken or the attitude with which they are spoken may not be the problem – it could be the filter we hear them through. Maybe you’ve been offended over something. That offense can cause you to perceive things differently than how the person meant them. If you are hurting, you hear the words or see the actions through that hurt. If you are angry, you may do the same – except through the filter of anger. You may change out the coffee and the water – the people and their presence in your life – but it might not be the answer. It could possibly be the same situation as what we dealt with – it was the filter that was causing the issue.
It could be that your familiarity with people around you causes you to filter them out, and you miss out on the value they can bring to your life. In church, you may filter out what is being said because you think you’ve heard it before, or that you don’t want to hear it. You miss out on what God wants to say to you that day.
The truth is, we all have our own filters to monitor and keep clean. We have to realize that our emotions often are the initial filter that things pass through – just like that hidden water filter in our coffee machine. Things then pass on to our minds for further processing – like the actual coffee filter. Only when we have both clear can we properly process and enjoy life as it was intended.
Well, I’m back to my cup of coffee, and a little bit of soul searching. If I write it I need to be doing it as well, right? Here’s hoping I’ve encouraged you to do a little filter checking of your own. God’s best in life is there for us if we will apply ourselves to going about life His way.
