Which Are You?

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A certain daughter complained to her father about her life and how things had been so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and she wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed that just as one problem was about solved another arose.

A father, a chef, took her to the kitchen, filled three pots with water and placed the fire on high. Soon the three pots came to a boil.

In one, he placed carrots, in the other he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth impatiently and wondered what he was trying to do. She had problems, and he was making this strange concoction.

In half an hour, he walked over to the oven and turned down the fire. He pulled the carrots out and placed them in the bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in the bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her he asked, "Darling, what do you see?"

Smartly she replied, "Carrots, eggs and coffee."

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Her face frowned from the strength of the coffee.

Humbly she asked, "What does it mean, Father?"

He explained. "Each of them face the same adversity, 212 degrees of boiling water. However, each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. But after going through boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg was fragile. The thin outer shell protected a liquid center. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The coffee beans are unique however. After they were in the boiling water, it became stronger and richer. Which are you?" he asked his daughter.

When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?  Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with the smallest amount of pain and adversity you heat up, wilt and become soft with no strength?

Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? A fluid spirit? But after a death, a breakup, a divorce, a layoff you become hardened and still. Your shell looks the same, but you are so bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and heart internally?

Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean does not get its peak flavor and robust until it reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better. When things are their worst, do you get better?

When people talk the most, your praises increase. When the hour is the darkest, trials are their greatest, your worship elevates to another level.

How do you handle adversity? 
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (II Corinthians 4:8-9).

-- Selected, December 2001 --