Ramblings from Retirement – Find Your Peace

 Ramblings from Retirement – Find Your Peace
By Retired Pastor Lee Hemen
May 6, 2021

For me there is nothing better in the morning than to sit listening to the squirrels chattering outside, the red-winged blackbirds singing, and the sounds of people mowing lawns while I begin my day drinking a black cup of coffee. I grind some Guatemala Antigua beans, make four cups of the smoothest tasting dark nectar there is.

My mother taught me to drink straight black coffee. Except her coffee was often boiled in a pan of water on the stove and had the consistency of crude oil. Instead of pouring it you cut off a chunk and swallowed it whole. She would often let it cook on the stove or in her newfangled peculator all day as she wandered back and forth getting a new chunk in her cup. She learned to make coffee as a young girl in Wyoming cooking for cowhands. Lest you think it had a detrimental effect on her, she lived into her early 90’s and continued to drink plain black crude oil of coffee all day. She grew up poor and tried to escape it by going to Alaska as a young teenager.

Sitting here today I was reminded of what Jesus related to his disciples: “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:25-27 NIV)” Sadly my Mother was not a believer but she did find some comfort in a strong cup of Joe each day.

A good cup of coffee soothes the soul and I do not mean the prissy thousand calorie quasi-milkshake sugar induced confections that are often swilled by Starbuck drones. I mean a good black cup of freshly brewed coffee where the smell of roasted beans and the fresh scent of brewed heaven wafting up and gently engulfing you like a cloud. Now I know some of you will say that tea is better, but come on really? Green leaves boiled into nasty weak soup as opposed to a real drink made dark and rich? The best way to have tea is with a lot of lemon, sweetener, and ice. I jest of course so please no snarky remarks.

I drink my brew in a Donald Duck mug because he is my favorite cartoon character and always has been since I was a kid. When I first saw Donald lose it and go into his famous rage madly quacking and then the next instant be gentle and calm he reminded me of my Mother. She was like that. She could be the sweetest person one moment and then go all Donald Duck on you the next. However, the one thing that brought her joy was her coffee in the morning. She would sit by her patio door, listening to the birds in her backyard, looking out at her flower garden full of roses and a myriad of other flowery blossoms and the orneriness would melt away. She would drink her coffee and forget about her poverty, her stress, aches and pains, and allow it to be soothed away. We learned as kids to make sure she got her first cup as soon as she got up.

Dear child of the Lord I do not know if you like coffee or not, tea or some other thing, but what I want to leave you with today is take time to relax in the Lord and find your peace of mind in him. Do not let your heart be troubled by the cares and concerns of the day and allow them to melt away in the presence and peace of the Lord and perhaps a cup of coffee.

This article is copyrighted © 2021 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Have Faith in God - Mark 11:22-26

Have Faith in God - Mark 11:22-26 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 24, 2010 AM We find that what many people believe about their spirituality is often influenced in unorthodox ways. Sadly, in the movie “Hereafter”, we find one such view concerning life, death, and the afterlife. It centers on three people touched by death: a reluctant physic who supposedly communicates with dead people, a woman who has a near death experience with a tsunami, and a London schoolboy who loses his twin brother in a freak accident. People often wonder what happens to them after they die it is one of life’s ultimate questions. People also long to communicate in some way with deceased loved ones. While mourning is different for each person, and thinking we can communicate with the dead can help some folks cope with loss, these misconceptions often allow folks to consider anything as valid. It has also created a lot of false teaching concerning faith. Christians have allowed the world to define faith f
Read more

What Makes A Person Clean or Unclean? - Mark 7:1-23

What Makes A Person Clean or Unclean? - Mark 7:1-23 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 21, 2010 AM It is amazing to me that there are those who do not believe in God and those who do believe in God that presume to speak for God. Non-believers can have a false sense of security and self-righteousness by thinking they can just dismiss that God exists, therefore, justifying a kind of self-made morality. Then, there are those who say they believe there is some sort of a god, yet by doing their own thing, they live in kind of a spiritual fantasyland of their own making. For both groups feelings have become their personal spiritual guide. We find no such theology in the Bible. While the Greeks and Romans, of Jesus’ day, could be found spiritually in one of these two aforementioned groups, there were also the Pharisees who followed their own self-inflicted form of spirituality. They justified their pious imprisonment by saying their righteousness came from following the letter of the law. Jesus, in to
Read more

Leave Everything Behind! - Mark 10:28-31

Leave Everything Behind! - Mark 10:28-31 By Pastor Lee Hemen September 5, 2010 AM In March of 2002 Petty Officer Neil Roberts, a U.S. Navy SEAL fell out of a stricken helicopter during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. According to a Pentagon report, Roberts survived the fall, and then held off Al Qaida and Taliban fighters for over 30 minutes, firing a belt-fed machine-gun. The terrorists finally overran Roberts’ position and killed him at close range, after his gun jammed. Believing that Roberts might still be alive, U.S. Special Forces mounted two rescue attempts. Six other Americans—including two airmen—died in the fighting that followed. The battle finally ended with the recovery of Roberts’ body, the evacuation of other casualties, and Air Force gunships raking the area with cannon fire. The effort to rescue Petty Officer Roberts typifies the military credo of “leave no man behind.” In Christianity, there is a credo that has all but been forgotten in our day and age.
Read more