Do you enjoy a hot cup of coffee? Maybe a caramel latte or peppermint mocha is more your style. And if you are one of the few people that don’t drink coffee you at least know someone who does. But have you ever thought about where coffee comes from? I’m sure you are familiar with coffee beans, but have you ever considered the journey from plant to cup?

Somewhere in the mountains of South America there is a little coffee plant. On that plant grow handfuls of little red beans. Those beans are picked by a local coffee farmer. He takes the beans and soaks them in buckets of water to clean them, as well as soften them so the outer hull will come off easily. Once the beans are clean and dehulled, they are spread out in the warm sunlight to dry. After they dry the little beans, now green in color, the beans get bagged up and prepared to sell.

The customs and shipping process can take up to two months before the bags of beans arrive at their destination. They are still not ready to drink yet. They must first be roasted. The longer they roast, the darker the beans becomes. As they get darker, the flavor of the final cup is stronger and bolder than if the beans are not roasted as long. Even after roasting, they are not ready to drink. They are bagged up to sell to the consumer now. We buy the whole bean coffee from the local supermarket, take it home and grind it up into powder, and put it in the coffee pot. Only after pouring hot water over this brown powder do we finally have a cup of coffee that we are all familiar with.

So what am I getting at? I have often thought of all the steps in this process and wondered how in the world did the Indian farmer think to do that with those little beans? I am sure he had no idea that he could grind up a bean and have a hot tasty drink as a final product. I think he used his God-given creativity to begin to experiment. After many trials, failures, bitter drinks, nasty tastes, he finally ended up with the hot coffee many of us love today.

How many of us would give up after the raw beans did not taste good. Or maybe after the cooked beans did not taste good? Or after grinding the beans into a bitter powder? My point is this: it may take you a while, but you can accomplish great things. You may attempt and fail, but that is ok. I would rather attempt and fail, than to not attempt and wonder. The important thing to think about is the cup of coffee in your hand. God has put great desires and dreams into us.

Don’t Give Up

What dreams has God put in your heart? Don’t give up, because He is faithful. Even when you don’t succeed, don’t give up. When you think you can’t do anything more, don’t give up.

It is not what you start and fail at that will be remembered for. You will be remembered for what you start and finish.