yesterday was a very long day. it was one of those days where i was unprepared for long waiting times with nothing to do. i am sure you have had one or two of those days. and after i read an entire book for school at this coffee shop (soma cafe) i decided to take a walk. i didnt want that coffee feel of it sitting in you all day. while walking in the soma (south of market street for those not in san francisco:), i thought it would be cool to walk into every coffeeshop i went by in order to get the feel. i love seeing how people interact together. i love seeing if it is a commuter coffee shop, a family coffee shop, a college coffee shop, or my favorite, the old man coffee shop usually with one woman in it (which is a blog for a different day:). anyways after about 5 shops and 10 blocks later, i decided to sit and chill in a starbucks (i came to the trendy part of town) and get a new york times and pray there was a soduku in it, and read for awhile. after the editorial page, my favorite part of the paper, i dove into the business section. there was an article about starbucks in there (which was weird reading about starbucks while in a starbucks and drinking starbucks). starbucks decided to discontinue their breakfast sandwiches. i was really surprised. they looked like they were selling well. in fact, they are selling. but the reason they are discontinuing selling the sandwiches is because the aroma of the breakfast sandwiches is taking over the aroma of the coffee in the shops and therefore starbucks feels it is losing part of its identity. while i was sitting there, i was thinking about how its so true. the smell of the bacon totally messes up the coffee smell. and even though i actively participate in starbucks activity, i ended up missing out on one of the main reasons i went there. the feel. the smell. the sense of being while i was there. all of a sudden i was having a coffee identity crisis. how could i participate and stand up for something for this long without realizing the core has changed. and the past 4 months i have started to drink coffee without the lid on because i heard that we really taste things by what we smell. and i think it is great symbolism to never keep anything closed up. i want the lid off all things in life (this was a metaphor from erwin mcmanus). and i dont ever want to hide who i am or who others are and i am reminded that as i drink my coffee. and the whole time, even as i attempted to experience the aroma more, i was really missing out on huge aspects of the experience the entire time. this might sound silly, but i think it is true. and not merely in the coffee realm. how often are we part of something long after the thing we are apart from has changed and really limited ourselves? in my life, this is not more evident than in church and in my walk with god. i believe with my entire heart the church is an amazing thing. it is a community, it is a family. i have seen the power in my life and how god has used it to transform many people's lives. it a place to be. its a place to become. yet, with all of its beauty, how many times does the church really limit and not experience what god is calling in to do? same with our walk with god. a lot of the time, when people first experience god, it is alive. it is vibrant. it is moving. it is transformational. it is reconciliational. you feel as if your soul has felt its worth. yet, a lot of people, after walking with god for a long time, begin to lose the aroma of god in their lives. god becomes a program. god becomes making sure you do certain things. god is still there. but instead of fully experiencing god, god is lessened by other aromas. to me, this is a great tragedy. to have hearts awoken, fully immersed in the aroma of god, to lose out to other things. i pray we become aware of what aromas are competing in our lives in order to not settle. | 
