Carrot, egg, or coffee bean? - LPNI

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Carrot, egg, or coffee bean?

LPNI Health Topic – August 2021

Sometimes troubles of one sort seem to overwhelm us. They can even challenge us to wonder about the value of our life. A young woman once told her mother that life was so hard for her and she wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as if when one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her into the kitchen, and placed three saucepans with water on the stove, and brought them to the boil. She placed a carrot in the first, an egg in the second, and some ground coffee beans in the last. After about 20 minutes she took the saucepans off the stove and placed their contents in three separate bowls. She asked her daughter, ‘What can you see?’

‘A carrot, and an egg and some coffee’, the daughter replied.

The mother asked the young woman to feel the carrot. She did, and noted that it was soft. The mother then asked the daughter to break the egg. She did, and noted how the egg inside the shell had become hard. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she smelled its rich aroma and tasted its full flavour. Then she asked he mother what this meant.

Her mother explained that these objects had each faced the same ‘adversity’ — boiling water — and each had reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong and hard, and came out softened and weak. The liquid egg had gone in fragile, protected only by its shell, and had come out hardened. The ground coffee beans, however, were unique. Instead of being changed by the boiling water, they had changed the water.

‘Which one will you be?’ the mother asked the daughter, ‘A carrot, or an egg or a coffee bean?’

I wonder how you handle adversity … the tough times in your life! Are you like a carrot that becomes soft and loses its strength when the going gets tough? Are you like an egg that starts with a soft heart, but becomes hard on the inside? Or are you like a coffee bean that actually changes the hot water, the very thing that brings the pain?

When the hour is darkest and adversities are their greatest, then our faith in God can carry us through. It reminds us that we don’t have to face adversity alone. Our all-powerful God is with us in every situation we face ... and life is worth living!

There is a bonus in us remembering this, not only for ourselves, but also for others. People will be curious about the God who helps us to be like a coffee bean, and allow the fragrance and flavour of our faith to fill our every circumstance.

Jesus once said, Let your light so thine before others that they may see your good deeds and praise your heavenly Father (Matthew 5:16).

Sylvia Hutt

Adelaide, Australia