Giving Praise, Anyway…

  • Post author:

I’m sure I am not the only one who has ever had waves of annoying things happen to them. I am not a big fan of annoying things, but when they seem to come in wave after wave? That’s the worst.

For whatever reason, I have been really struggling to get sleep this week. Falling asleep doesn’t seem to be the problem, as I am absolutely exhausted, but staying asleep and resting well all night seems to be out of my reach. What I know is that when sleep is compromised, so are my coping skills.

This morning, I woke up to the realization that 1) someone had used up all of the coffee pods, leaving the container in the house empty/had not refilled it; 2) there were no more coffee pods to refill the container; 3) apparently, without being told of the lack of coffee, I was supposed to have known of the situation and gone to the store to purchase some more (coffee is a must for me in the mornings – especially since I’m up at 4:30); 4) if we are going to have coffee in the house, I will need to be the one to buy it.

I’m not sure about you, but at 4:30 in the morning, especially after having slept poorly all week, I am not in the best place of reasoning. I noticed that I had a little ground coffee on hand that I use in our big coffee pot when we have company. I decided that I would go ahead and brew a full pot of coffee. This method, by the way, is definitely more time consuming than brewing a single cup. So, as the coffee was brewing I decided to go ahead and start reading my Bible.

Somewhere along the passages, I heard a dripping sound and as I sat trying to figure out what it was, it dawned on me that the coffee pot was still making the brewing sound, but there was dripping too. I got up to discover that indeed the coffee pot was still going but coffee was now all over the counter and wood floor. Awesome. Who doesn’t want to clean up a nice hot mess at 4:45?

What I realized as I was cleaning (and now dumping out the coffee from the pot) was that I had made coffee in the coffee pot on Tuesday for my aunt and mom who were in town for my girls’ concerts. While I had thought to empty the grounds and replace those, I had not emptied out the remaining coffee from the pot that had not been used. Hence, the coffee overflow. Great.

In addition, I now no longer had enough coffee to make another pot. Super cool. So as I stood in my kitchen trying to problem solve on a sleep deprived, coffee-less, 4:45 brain, I remembered that I did have a K-cup filter and could brew at least one cup from the grounds I still had remaining.

Praise be to God, I am finishing up my cup of coffee now. And believe me, I am grateful for it.

Here’s the thing: I really hate things messing with my Bible time. I hate early mornings, and would much rather be asleep for as long as possible, so when I make a sacrifice to get up so that I can have time when the rest of the house is quiet and I get disturbed – I’m annoyed. Very little in my day is quiet. Very few times in my day am I ever in a place where I have any space for myself. And I crave it.

Friend, the thing is I doubt I’m alone. Maybe your day doesn’t start so early. Maybe you are not out of coffee (or now have a child up)… but circumstances out of your control seem to hit in wave after wave and they are driving you crazy. What we need to remember, is that even in the midst of the crazy – the interruptions – the challenges – God is still God, and we still have reason to praise Him.

“Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness, come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the LORD is good and His love endures forever, His faithfulness continues through all generations.” – Psalm 100:1-5

Blessings!