About five years ago, I stumbled upon something that altered my perception of coffee forever.
Eight O’Clock Coffee – Columbia – Whole Bean.
I say stumbled because honestly, I would never have looked at this little, unassuming bag of coffee beans and thought, “That looks like a great coffee.”
It doesn’t. It’s maroon (I think…I’m color-blind, so I’m not so sure) and has the company’s logo on the front. That’s about it. There are no flashy designs. No “Best Coffee You’ve Ever Had!” stickers or signs on it. It pretty much looks like it has for the past 150 years (though I hear they are looking at making a “new look” for their 150th anniversary). And I think I just picked it up on a frugal whim because it was recommended by a friend.
You see, this particular brand of coffee has a great selling point…it’s ridiculously cheap! As a matter of fact, I picked up a 12oz. bag last week for a whopping $3.64 at Wal-Mart.
Yes, I said $3.64!
You pay at least that for the decrepit awfulness we all know as Taster’s Choice. I cringe at the thought of “crystals” you mix into water to create a more dirty water that masquerades as coffee. It’s also cheaper than the sadly-roasted and poor-tasting Folgers and Maxwell House coffees that so many are fooled into thinking are the benchmarks for “good coffee.” But that is altogether beside the point, so I’ll move on.
The point here, however, is this stuff is dirt-cheap. And so am I, so we make a great team! (I prefer frugal, but I have to just be honest sometimes.) And for this paltry price, you would never expect to be ushered into a truly great coffee-drinking experience. I didn’t.
But as I enjoyed my first cup of a thousands-cup relationship with this coffee, I was truly impressed. I couldn’t believe the quality. Just the right amount of body. Smooth. Complex. Satisfying. Flat-out, a stellar cup of coffee.
As time went by, I found myself recommending it to others, bragging about the inexpensive alternative to Starbucks and other over-priced “gourmet” coffees. I found plenty of people switching to Eight O’Clock after trying it and willing to come to my defense as I attempted to tout this poorly-named but full-bodied roast to coffee snobs much like myself. You just can’t argue with taste. You can’t argue with quality. You can’t argue with good-ness.
But you can write it off. Everyone’s tastes are different. ”I like what I drink, you like what you drink.”
“Don’t push that ‘try mine and see’ stuff on me.”
A polite nod and grin as if to say, “That’s real nice that you like it. I’m sure it’s great. I’ll try it sometime.”
These are all responses I recieved when telling folks about this great discovery. I had no facts. Just opinions. Just feelings. Just a hunch that what I had happened upon here was really worth telling others about.
But that all changed about two months ago when my sister-in-law brought me a magazine that is a food-version of Consumer Reports. You know, the famous magazine where they test and rate everything under the sun? Well, this magazine does that with food products, and there just happened to be an article in there about coffee. Sounded interesting, so I dug in and got right to the coffee section.
There before me were all sorts of coffees pitted against one another. Big brands. Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts…you name it, it was there. And this was a panel. No one-sided, opinionated choices here. It was a taste-test done by committee. It was sure to prove which was best.
And guess who won?
Eight O’Clock Coffee – Columbia – Whole Bean!
Yeah baby! Sweet! I was substantiated! I was proven! I was right!
But, to be honest, it didn’t change anything. Yes, my original opinion had been backed up and I could feel pretty good about the fact that I had peddled this stuff for the last five years, but what real difference did that make?
None.
My personal experience and gut-feelings were still the exact same. My consumption levels are still the exact same. My message to people about the killer coffee with the small price tag remains the same.
Strange.
We watched a video entitled “Everything is Spiritual” a few weeks ago at Open House. And in it, Rob Bell does a wonderful job of giving many facts that basically beg you to debate that there is no God. You walk away from this video so amazed at our Father. So amazed at His ability to create. So amazed at the sheer size of The One who made the universe.
But as exciting as facts and numbers and proofs for God can be, it can never really create faith in God.
We find what we want to find, I suppose.
And we are left with what we experience in our lives. We are left with what we know deep down in our soul. We are left to decide about this God not because we are convinced of his reality, but because we are confronted by it. We tell others because we know this Savior is the most amazing thing we have ever experienced, not because a panel of experts say that he is.
While all the facts and apologetic reasoning substantiate our faith, we can never attempt to make it the cornerstone of our faith. We must realize that all the searches for answers to all the questions about Jesus are not bad, but they are not the reason and are not the purpose of our faith. Jesus is the reason. Jesus is the purpose. Jesus is the Cornerstone. To quote a great line from an artist I love to listen to named Jimmy Needham: ”Christ is what Christ offers.”
That’s it. May we not ever confuse the greatness of the Gospel simply with answers to life’s questions. May we never get lost in the rat-race of trying to have the answer to every question about God. May we always be satisfied to live in the middle of God’s mystery. May we be willing to share about Jesus not because we can prove He is the only way, but simply because we just know He is. And may we always see the truth of Jesus for what it is: Personal, powerful, life-changing, and utterly compelling.
– Robby Payne
