I had to laugh today when a woman told me her history with the coffee habit.
She said that years ago her son gave her a hard time about drinking coffee. He said to her, “Mom you need to quit drinking coffee. Don’t you realize that stuff is a drug?”
Mom replied, “Oh I only drink 3 or 4 cups a day, it’s no big deal.”
Her son came back with, “Well then, Is it okay if I smoke 3 or 4 joints a day?”
Mom suddenly had a rude awakening. She stood aghast at how comfortable she had been in drugging herself for many years and the kind of example she was setting for her children. She quit drinking, and that was the end of her coffee habit.
I hardly think it fair to equate caffeine with marijuana, though I know what her son was trying to do.
I mean, let’s get real. Two of the best practitioners I have had both admitted going to Starbucks for their morning coffee…and not decaf.
We have far more important things to deal with than giving up a delicious cup of coffee, folks.
P.S. We ave been criticized for have a big sweet-tooth. (We students of CS.) Shall we give up our ice cream, too?
sigh.
I gave up caffeine years ago and have never missed it. But I really like coffee and I’ve been drinking it for 30 years (decaf) Every morning I go into Starbucks and they know what I want. However, I’ve been giving coffee a little thought. Didn’t think of quitting until a couple of days ago I realized I’ve lost my taste for it. Tea comes in flavor that are not decaffe because they’ve never had any caffeine to get rid of.
Now you have gone from preaching to meddling. LOL
Hey, if the preachers are like Evan, bring them on!
My mom was addicted to coffee and encouraged me to start drinking it. I got sick of having to have it every morning and bearing the penalty of awful headaches and laying on the couch for an entire day or more if I didn’t have it. I tried to quit numerous times, but always went back. I finally gave up trying to quit and just trusted my desire to quit to God.
A few weeks before I was to have CS class instruction, I was able to quit and have never gone back to drinking it on a regular basis. I do love the taste and smell of coffee, and I drink decaf sometimes, but not on a regular basis.
I don’t think it’s that big a deal for CStists to drink coffee or eat chocolate, but for me, I hated the feeling of HAVING to have it to feel well.
A practitioner was having lunch with some students. One of the students said, “I see you haven’t given up coffee.” And he replied, “no, but I gave up criticism a long time ago.”
Sometimes sin and sensuality need criticizing!
Nothing wrong with some old-fashioned prayer, fasting, and self-denial.
Then we’ll REALLY be awake!
Just because many of us enjoy a cup of coffee doesn’t mean we should be criticizing people who have been healed of addictions to caffeine. Giving up caffeine is definitely a step in the right direction for somebody who loves God and CS and we should be happy for those who are able to do it, not critical and defensive.
“and we should be happy for those who are able to do it, not critical and defensive.”
Actually, the critical ones are the ones who have given it up. The best approach is the apostle Paul’s. He says not to criticise another in what they eat or drink, but if it causes another to stumble, it is best not to do it. At least do not be in ones face about it.
Weak analogy. Coffee is legal. Marihuana isn’t.
On pages 452-3 of Mis Writings there’s a testimony of a man who was healed of stomach troubles.
He writes: “From that day I have eaten of everything on the table, and all I wished. Coffee was my worst enemy, and I had not tasted it for years without suffering untold agony. Several days passed before I cared to drink it; then, one morning, I told my family I would commence to use it; I did, and have used it every day since, and don’t know that I have a stomach, as it never has caused me any trouble since that morning.”
So, this man was healed and able to enjoy coffee and Mrs. Eddy saw fit to include his healing in one of her books.
If people want to drink coffee, that’s fine and if they don’t want to drink coffee, that’s also alright. Judge Not!
The caffeine debate and other such like are really secondary issues.
But the bottom line is that inevitably as CS I have to square myself with the textbook.
Interestingly though caffeine is chemically classified as a deadly poison in the same group as nicotine.
A pinhead of pure nicotine is believed to bring immediate death.
And real fun – a chemical engineer will tell you that the traces of chemicals left in your decaff. which were used to remove the caffeine, are more deadly than the caffeine itself.
Decaff. is a better belief, but it is not better coffee.
If you must drink the stuff don’t try to justify it.
Joining this conversation belatedly:
Having gotten hooked on caffeine (from soft drinks) while on a month-long business trip overseas, where there was an absence of “no caffeine” products, I felt the effects of withdrawal the day I returned to the States. It was Association day, so my suffering was multiplied because I wasn’t able to get much of the spiritual message.
I vowed to never have another caffeinated drink, and I have stuck to that pledge with the exception of maybe five cans of caffeinated soda (when nothing else was available) in 20 years.
It hasn’t been a burden, because my love of freedom from addictive behavior is so much stronger than any love I had for the substance I was addicted to.
I think it’s dangerous to call some issues “secondary.” Granted, we don’t overcome all sin overnight, but the mental state of accepting sin is the same, no matter what the particulars.
And as for being critical, as one commenter put it above, all forms of sin, of sensuality need to be corrected and booted out. If Love impels someone to see through sin and say something impersonally to another, that is NOT undue criticism. It is only taken as criticism when the person who’s doing the sinning feels guilty and gets defensive and wants to cling a little longer to his tatters.
There’s a time for speaking up, and a time for keeping quiet, and Mind directs each, when the motive is to help another, not point a finger.
I have enjoyed coffee, decaf, black tea and cocoa since being introduced to them in childhood, and never considered them “habits” because I drank them for the flavor, never for the caffeine. In my house it is easy to reach for the coffee and decaf, as my husband keeps a pot of one or the other going almost all the time. I hadn’t thought much about needing healing because I didn’t feel addicted.
Recently, however, the healing came, unlooked-for! A thought that occurred to me one day was, that I would not think of taking several aspirins every day for years, while believing that they could neither help or harm me – so, why have several cups a day of a caffeine-laden drink? Although I used to love the taste, the desire for any of the above drinks has simply fallen away. I have been working on and praying about some other challenges which are still not resolved, but this gentle healing has given me a sense of progress. While I would not judge anyone else for their use of caffeinated beverages, (Jesus was specific about our not judging others!), I am most grateful that my desire is no longer in that direction.
Thank you, Evan, for bringing up this topic – one way or another, it seems to be striking a chord with lots of folks!