The Power of One Cup (or conversation)

So there has been a lot of research going into finding out what is good and/or bad for you. For years people have been told that many things in moderation can be very helpful for you. They have looked at red wine, dark chocolate and others but now great interest in being shown to coffee. While coffee is a huge business and so many consume it in large amounts daily, science (and coffee companies) wanted to see what good a cup of coffee can do for you. It turns out that the amount I drink exceeds their recommendations for purely healthful benefits. But while I enjoy coffee to its fullest it is interesting to think about how a single cup may be so important that it can change your health or even your life. And what God has been showing me lately is that it is not only single cups of coffee that are helpful and life changing, it is also single conversations with individuals that seem to have the same helpful results. When we engage one another in conversation, it can be lighthearted and fun or serious and challenging. But in those moments we find connection with another human being and truth is able to be shared or a challenge or invitation to be offered. I have seen this time and time again in working with students that what is huge for them is really knowing we want them to be a part. We want to hear their story and seek to share life with them so that God might connect them to His great story. Whether inviting someone new to join our leadership team or asking a student that attends regularly but doesn't really "plug in" to key events, it is amazing how following the leadership of the Holy Spirit in those small ways can be life giving and encouraging. The benefit is for both the one initiating and the one responding and that is one of the greatest mysteries of how God uses simple, broken vessels to display His worth and glory. He is usually working both in and through us at the same time. And it is often the most "normal" or mundane events and activities that point best to His greatness when He works through them, like conversation. So I encourage to take some initiative and have a conversation that matters. Get to heart stuff and laugh and cry or encourage or whatever. But don't settle for just the surface conversation at least once today. We never know what that one conversation might mean for us or them.

"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." Ephesians 4:29