My wife, Kim, and I have been becoming acquainted with our neighbors that live across the street. Eric works on bicycles, and Amy is a microbiologist. She is on a first name basis with a lot of slime, ooze, and furry stuff at which the rest of us would turn our noses up. She enjoys analyzing things that would have the rest of us, for the most part, in a bit of a retch.

    Amy and I had a conversation the other evening that kind of started me thinking. We were at her place for a Christmas get-together and Amy and I were in the kitchen helping ourselves to some of the holiday fare. As I looked around for a clean cup in which to put some hot spiced cider, I happened to mention my coffee cup that I keep at work. I’m not a frequent coffee drinker. It’s been a few weeks since I last made coffee at the office, and unfortunately, on that last occasion, I left about a fourth of a cup in the mug that I keep on my desk...

    Well you know how that goes sometimes... sometimes you just get busy... sometimes you see a little mess and feel you don’t have time to spare to work on it... Sometimes you just ignore the moldy, hairy stuff that you know is growing in places you really don’t want to look.

    There is some interesting microbiology cultured at the bottom of my big black cup! The coffee was fresh and hot when I left it there, but time, temperature, and bacteria (or mold, or mildew, or whatever it is that makes up the crust that is sprouting hair and possibly other appendages in my cup) took over while I wasn’t looking.

It’s ugly, hairy, disgusting, and has taken over our soul!

    I’ve also been thinking about sin in our lives. It isn’t usually something that we just go out and choose to do. No, it’s usually something that sneaks up or creeps its way in, until it becomes something that we know is there and that will eventually take an industrial strength cleaner and a good scrub brush to eradicate. It’s ugly, hairy, disgusting, and has taken over our soul! Now I’m not going to give a ton of verses for you to look up, many of you can quote the Word better than me, but a few suggestions did enter my mind regarding how to avoid the ball of fur in your coffee cup — both the physical and spiritual one.

1. Do daily maintenance — NOT just Spring cleaning!
   Many big chores are avoided by maintenance chores being done. How many engines might have been saved if folks had just taken the time to do the little things like oil changes and air pressure checks? Stop and have a daily devotional time with God and put some time in praying for positive changes that you and God, together, need to accomplish in your own life. Are you spending time daily in God’s word, for your own good, not researching or debating, but really applying the Scriptures to your own life?

2. Be open-minded about your own vulnerability to sin and your need to change.
   I have lost count of the number of people who occasionally sit at my desk, needing to use my computer, that have good-naturedly chided me about the science project in my big black cup! We all need to listen to our friends, especially when they are right! Listen carefully when a spiritual friend urges you to re-examine a position, make a life correction, or to avoid certain activities. Sometimes we can’t see the moldy slime because it is closing in on us.

3. And most importantly, be humble.
   It’s a sad thing to look upon a man or woman defiantly defending their reasons for harboring that slimy ooze in their spiritual cup! Don’t be a Pharisee and have a beautiful exterior and an inside that is full of putrid rot and dead men’s bones... When David realized the sin in his life, he humbled himself before the Almighty and wept at the sin he knew was his... No question why he was “a man after God’s own heart.” And I wonder what it might have been like to be a part of the mob gathered on the day of Pentecost after crucifying the Christ, and realizing it for the first time their need to... repent... be baptized... receive the peace and comfort that comes from knowing Jesus... study with the apostles... break bread together... meet in one another’s homes... and learn from those sent with the message... work together with gladness and sincerity of heart... In other words, a total life and culture change was necessary. To do this requires genuine humility!

    When I get back to the office on Wednesday, there’s a big black cup waiting for me. I know that the micro-biotic life form, that I’m sure Amy knows by genus and species, will still be there... but I’ll be ready for it.

© Copyright 2002, Darrell Tucker. Used by permission.

Title: "Coffee Cup Culture"
Author: Darrell Tucker
Publication Date: January 16, 2002

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