A
potato, an egg and a coffee bean walk into a bar; doesn’t this sound like the
start of a good joke? While listening to a short podcast on the Morning Moxie titled: A New Way to Respond to Old Problems by Joyce Meyer, I heard her speak
about this analogy and it stuck to me. In the message, she talked about three
types of people: the potato, the egg and the coffee bean and how they each
respond to adversity. In their situation, the adversity was the boiling water
they were placed into. Now let’s check out each person’s response:
The
Potato: for anyone that is a fan of potatoes, whether irish or sweet, one
thing you’d definitely know is that when they’re uncooked, they’re hard. But
despite their hardness, when you put them into a pot of boiling water, after a
period of time, they become soft and squishy. The potato represents those that
face challenges and cave to those challenges. When faced with a mountain or any
challenge, they become all soft and squishy like the disciples when faced with
a storm (Matt. 8:23-27); adversities and mountains scare them away regardless
of their size. These are the people described in Prov. 24:10 (MSG): “If you
fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place”. See
Peter (aka the Rock), Mr. Hard Guy, they asked him if he knew Jesus and he went
soft (Luke 22:54-62).
The
Egg: the egg represents those that go into adversity soft and timid but come
out hard and strong. They lose all their softness and become battle hardened.
Seems good, right? Wrong. The problem with responding to adversity this way is
that you become harsh and bitter and may end up finding it difficult to love
others the way God expects us to love our neighbors (Mark 12:31, I Cor. 13:13).
This hardness can also result in stubbornness (Ex. 10:20). Check out Pharoah,
he went through adversity and continued to harden his heart (Ex. 7:13) and as a
result of it, his people suffered numerous losses even to the point of losing their
first born son (Ex. 7 – 11). God doesn’t want us to have a hardened heart (Ps 51:17, Eze. 36:26).
The Coffee Bean: these are the people that go into the boiling water (adversity)
but they don’t allow it define them. Instead, they take it and create something
new; in the case of the bean, coffee. Adversity drives them to live a life of
impact, a life that brings people to God and shines so bright that people
glorify God (Matt. 5:16). In the middle of adversity, they learn to abase and
abound (Phil. 4:12). Though the storms of life blow, they tighten their belt,
adjust their armor and stand (Eph. 6:13-18). These people know that there will always be problems in life (John 16:33) but regardless of the size of the mountain, they gat this (Phil. 4:13)! They also understand that the problem is but
for a season and purpose (Rom. 5:3-5) and that no matter the size of the
mountain, God will not give them more than they can handle (I Cor. 10:13). They also know that it is working together for their good (Rom. 8:28)
As we go about the rest of the week, I charge us all to be like the coffee bean or as Bruce Lee said: “be water, my friend”. God will neither leave you nor forsake you (Deut. 31:6) and remember through it all: we are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37)!
Photo cred: Potato, Egg & Coffee
