I’m about to share my secret creation with the world. Are you ready? A Venti Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew with 3 pumps of brown sugar syrup, 3 pumps of caramel syrup, extra mocha drizzle, extra caramel drizzle, and light ice. (If you actually try this and I somehow make it famous… you’re welcome! And definitely leave me a comment to let me know what you think after you try it!)
Does that sound overwhelming to you? It did to my baristas when I created this custom drink – one I have sipped with pleasure several times a week for about 18 months. They all know my order by heart now and typically have it ready when I approach the door, upon seeing me pull in the parking lot. It has currently become somewhat underwhelming, rudimentary, and routine to them. Same drink – same taste – it’s just … Debbie.
That’s how we identify with Starbucks, right? We can order whatever we want, make all kinds of changes to it, and keep getting exactly what we desire over and over and over. So much so that it becomes second nature and we put no thought into how much we customize our refreshments.
I think sometimes we can treat our faith that same way. We create for ourselves a Starbucks style faith – what we want, when we want it, and how we want it. We add a collection of what we like and exclude a portion of what we don’t. We create a faith that manifests our own label and name, personalized, just like our Starbucks cups.
We don’t always want to hear certain things The Bible tells us. We don’t like when our conscience creeps up on us and we hear that small convicting whisper. So we cast it aside and seek something we do want to hear, something that helps us to justify our own thoughts and actions. Something that will make them acceptable, even if only in our own sight. “Extra sweet cream, and hold vanilla syrup, please”. Exactly the way we want it, but not exactly how it was created to be.
When we say, “No vanilla syrup, please”, we kind of miss the whole point of a ‘Vanilla’ Sweet Cream Cold Brew… don’t we? We tailor make it until it becomes unrecognizable from what the initial product was intended to be. Much the same way we do when we say, “I’ll do this God and I’ll listen to that part, but I won’t do that God and I don’t want to listen to this part”. We custom design our verses from The Bible based on what makes us feel good. We contort the Scriptures until they become something we can attempt to live by without sacrifice. Sadly, this also means we say we are Christians and we are righteous, but we live like the world and conform and compromise.
Am I saying altering your Starbucks drink is bad and you should stop doing that? Heavens no, I undoubtedly am the queen of twisting and twiddling my coffee creations to be exactly what I want them to be. But that’s coffee, my friend. Coffee doesn’t hold the power of our salvation and our eternity. But the way we live out (or don’t live out) our faith, does.
When we adjust the Word of God to make it conform to what we want it to be we actually disconnect the power and the purpose of what He initially intended for us to receive from it. God knew we would not like everything He had written to us, just as He knew some people thousands of years ago wouldn’t like what Jesus had to say to them. But that makes the written words of God and the spoken words of Jesus no less vital or imperative. We need to hear, live, and remain obedient to both the things we like and the things we don’t like. There is a purpose for it all and we cannot undermine the Lord’s instructions by dismembering them and cutting out the parts of scripture that we are not comfortable with.
Starbucks is designed for us to run inside or swing through the drive-through and get exactly what we crave in 3-minutes or less (depending on the crowd at the time). But the Gospel is designed to quench our thirst continually and is something that continues to steep and grow stronger over a lifetime. Starbucks provides a quick sensation, our Savior provides an eternal satisfaction. Don’t put more value in the caffeine than you do in Christ, sweet friend. You don’t think twice when you order your coffee exactly the way you want … but do ponder enough whether you are living your life exactly the way Jesus wants? Take time to sit, sip, and surrender – in the presence of the only One who truly satisfies the cravings of our hearts.
Bloom In The Bible 