So, we all pretty much love our coffee right!? I mean, daily, at least 30%-45% of the things I see on my Facebook news feed is somehow related to coffee. Now, I’m not knockin’ it! I need my Java. I need that dark grind in the a.m. in order to hit my daily grind after! Lately though, I’ve been having coffee about once every 2 weeks, if that. Seriously! I’m not messing with you! I went from daily coffee, to this. Now, I can’t blame anybody or anything but myself for that. This decision, as hard as it was, is mine. My family understands the hardship I’m going through in order to give up this necessity of life! They are sympathetically mourning for me as we speak. They have been tearing their robes and wearing sackcloth and sprinkling coffee grounds on their heads. There has been nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth since they heard the news! OH THIS TRIAL OF LIFE THAT I MUST ENDURE!! WOE IS ME!!!!!!!
At this point, as you’re reading this, you are either one of two people who will respond in two drastically different ways. You will either respond with:
“OH MY GOSH!!! Daniel, how are you still alive!?!? I can’t even comprehend having so little caffeine coursing through one’s veins! OH THE HUMANITY!!” (And then you too proceed to tear your robes, wearing sackcloth and coffee grounds on your head, as you begin weeping and gnashing your teeth. That is, if you’re truly my friend.)
OR
“Wow” you’re thinking to yourself. “Daniel, that’s pretty pathetic.” (And then you proceed to go about your day, baffled that I could make as big of a deal as I just did about something like… coffee.)
You know what? I love each person who responds in either of these two ways for who God has created them to be. Yet, to be completely honest with you all, I hope the second response was yours. So let me set the record straight and help us all to quit hyperventilating over this “trial of mine.”
It’s time to be serious everybody. It’s all because of the opportunity to do better things with my finances than get coffee. Honestly, I’m putting everything I have into going overseas in October to reach out to a lot of people who not only need food, clothes, safety, shelter, and medical care but also need the Gospel! I have this wonderful opportunity to be a part of serving each person in all of these ways! I know that this is God’s calling for me. In fact, I am so sure of this that I’m putting everything I have into making this happen. At the rate things are going, I speculate that I’ll have next to $0 in my name when I come back. I’m ok with that! This has so much more worth than what kind of a life I’ll be able to have afterwards. I have a home to come back to. It’s about the kind of life the people my team will interact with will be able to have forever!
What I’m trying to say is that here in the States we have made things “necessities” that, well… aren’t necessities! Seriously! We joke about coffee, but chew out the barista at the Starbucks drive through for making us late for work! REALLY!? You don’t have the self-control and discipline to just get up earlier, or make your own coffee, or even (brace yourself) just go to work!? It doesn’t even have to be coffee. We, dare I say it, idolize things other than coffee too. Things like:
Every single app on our phone,
Our phone,
Our clothes,
Politics,
Relationship status,
Money,
I’m sure you can dig down and think of a few more that may even be more applicable to you. You and I are at fault for idolizing all of these things at one point or another in our lifetime. I’m not giving myself the satisfaction of making excuses and neither should you.
I’m making this point for a reason. So please don’t think that I’m writing this to beat a dead horse and then step down from my soap box and say “God bless you all”. I’m saying this to tell you something I know for a fact! There are more people in the world who have next to nothing and yet STILL experience a greater understanding of true JOY than any of us!
With that being said, we can certainly live a little more simply and as a result, a little more joyfully. I say all of this to give you a 2 week long challenge with me! Beginning this Monday, May 9th, I want to challenge you to drink half of the coffee you normally drink and help me out by donating towards my team’s opportunity to go on the World Race. I’ll give you the freedom to plan that however you want:
You can keep track of the amount you pay each week for coffee yourself and cut it in half,
You can have a cup of joe, then donate, then have a cup of joe, then donate, etc.,
You can make note after each cup of how much you need to donate and at the end of 2 weeks donate it all at once.
I’m giving you a lot of freedom for this challenge, but all I simply want to ask is that you donate $5 every other time you go to get coffee instead of more coffee. Do this with me for the next 2 weeks. I know for some of you this will only mean having 1 cup a day instead of 2 (Stay strong! I know it’s tough but I know you can do it!). For others, it will mean far less. But if we all do this, we can make a huge difference towards helping a lot of people who are in need!
Regardless of how you choose to take this challenge, when you are ready to donate, come to this website and click on the donate button at the top of the page. Then you can take the simple steps necessary to giving towards this mission. Please let me know if you have any questions about this challenge. ALSO, every donation is tax deductible! So you giving can actually help you out later on when its tax season again!! (See below for a brief word from AIM)
Also, let me know if you’re doing it! I want to hear about how it’s going! If you even have any other ideas on how we need to challenge ourselves, let me know and I’ll consider doing another one depending on how well this one goes!
Thank you for doing this with me! Every amount counts and helps tremendously! God bless!
-Daniel
Adventures In Missions is a tax-exempt organization under IRS code 501(c)(3) and is a member of the ECFA. (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). Due to IRS and ECFA regulations governing the administration of tax deductible donations given in support of a particular trip/program, support contributions given on behalf of an individual will be used to offset the costs of the trip/program you are involved in. All contributions are non-refundable regardless of the participant’s success in completing the program.
