A Sip of Coffee (Spiritual Journaling) ☕️

Waking up early is a gift. Yesterday I woke with a desire for a “fresh filling” and today with a question for a “long haul”. A time of prayer helps me to understand these spiritual stirrings in my heart.  

I was at the Church Awakening conference these two days. But my experience of fresh filling didn’t coincide with the great worship or sermons, rather it comes with a glass of Vietnamese iced coffee. Fellowship with food was a fresh filling to my soul. The atmosphere was right, three of us from the prayer meeting team, enjoying the meal, and talking about the future of a spiritual renewal department (equipping the church through spiritual formation and prayer ministries). One of us said, “is it going to be a new skin with an old wine” and quickly we knew it would be with “new wine” and with some new team members. I felt that was a fresh filling and a small church awakening moment when three of us gathered in Jesus's name, sharing life, ministry, family members, church members, and everything in between. Thanks God for the fresh filling of the Spirit (with a nice cup of coffee).

 

Recently, the Lord often reminds me to “save energy” and this morning I have a fresh understanding by seeing life and ministry as a “long haul”. It resonates with my inner struggling through a few long projects that I am engaging in. The ordination, the dissertation, the desire for personal and church revival, the rising of a new generation, every one of these works would take a tremendous amount of time. Yet, the Lord reminds me that He never fails. He has taught me a great lesson about “long haul” the time when we needed to drive from Seattle to San Diego. It was unexpected for the flight to be canceled but we were determined for the “long haul” (twenty-hour trip x 2). We got the oil changed, loaded, headed out with a prayer, and made multiple stops for rest and meals. What kept me going through the long dark night was a cup of coffee, every sip reminding me the peace of God. It was quite a remarkable night that I was listening and pausing to process the audio book of Soul Care. Life is a “long haul” so every once a while we need a stop. Enjoy a sip of coffee as a fresh filling, knowing that “the end is near and we will make it”.