One of my favorite regular devotional readings is “Living the Message – Daily Help for the God-Centered Life”, written by Eugene H. Peterson. In his July 5th writing entry he titles it, Good News About Ourselves, He says, “The personal dimension of the gospel is good news about ourselves. The reality of what is within us is every bit as important as the news from political, industrial and scientific centers of the world. Even if world peace were an accomplished fact and the domestic economy stabilized to everyone’s satisfaction, we still must deal with ourselves.”
It was refreshing to read an article in the Charlotte Observer (Tuesday, April 29, 2008) in the Health and Family section. The title of the article was “Meet the woman who shaped the star.” The Plaza Church is proud to be a host site for Athletes United for Youth whose mission is to provide youth services throughout Charlotte-Mecklenburg communities resulting in positive attitudes in our children. Their goal is to assist youth ages seven to sixteen in preparing for a quality future educationally, spiritually, and respectfully. The athlete partners are Dell Curry, Steve Smith, and Jay Bilas. These present and former athletes are well known but my focus on this article are the comments by Dell Curry’s wife, Sonya Curry.
Sonya Curry shared her heart about one of her sons by the name of Stephen Curry, Davidson College’s star of this year’s NCAA tournament. In her humble way as much as her husband Dell’s success has drawn much attention she too was an athlete in college at Virginia Tech where she met her husband. I was impressed with how Sonya talked about her family and their priorities and what are important. Sonya and Dell keep their family grounded even with all the fame and attention. The two of them have instilled values and priorities in their children. “First God, then family, and everything else comes after that.
Please allow me to leave you with this story. A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering the guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a pot of coffee and an assortment of cups — porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal- some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite — telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other’s cups. Well consider this : Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of the Life we live.”
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.” God brews the coffee, not the cups. Enjoy your coffee!
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.” Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.
Your Pastor & Friend!