Mentoring is quite the buzzword these days. It seems everyone has a mentor and isn’t limited to an office setting. Since it is so pervasive today, we need to discern between good and bad mentoring.
This cartoon shows what happens when it turns into a bad excuse for a gopher role.
I’ve grown up in a culture that values church and coffee. Yes, Coffee and church culture go together. When I’ve gone to church, I knew I could find a a carafe of coffee ready for those seeking a good word and a good brew.
But thanks to COVID, that’s been interrupted like so many other things. Today, when one goes to church, one notices the coffee bars are shut down and the carafes are missing. I have learned to bring my travel mug with me. That’s been the only reliable way to ensure I have a coffee in one hand and am lifting my hand in worship with the other. I like to keep the caffeinated praise going.
The poor guy in my cartoon didn’t come as prepared as I am. There was no cup of Joe to rise him from the muddled mind of the morning. He’ll be okay. He just needs someone to run to the convenience store and get him a good styrofoam cup of the high octane stuff!
I drew this cartoon for the November 2022 CHOGNews.
Is it edifying? You might say, “edi- what?” It’s not a word we hear very often. My mother used it all the time when I was a child. I would be watching some goofy TV show. She would come up to me and ask, “Is this edifying?” I had no idea what she meant, but I suspected she didn’t think Gilligan’s Island fit within the edifying category.
According to Merriam Webster, here’s the definition of edifying:
Edifying: Instructive or informative in a way that improves the mind or character.
edifying,” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/edifying. Accessed 8/24/2020.
In today’s climate, we’re needing something edifying more than ever.
Once I knew what edifying meant, I was annoyed at Mom’s question. I would think that wasn’t the point of entertainment. I just wanted to laugh at some slapstick idiocy, for crying out loud!
But now I see we need some edification. Too many people are hurting each other. We all need to learn how to endure when our situation is less than ideal. We each need to be reminded how to be kind and love in the face of fear and anger. It’s time for some edification, some inspiration, and yes, perhaps like the pastor in the cartoon, we can add some caffeination while we’re at it!
I drew this for the August 2020 CHOGNews.
Yesterday, I read an article about my favorite hot beverage, or at least the prime drug that is in my favorite beverage; caffeine. It has been around for centuries, and according to the article, changed the course of history. Yet he maintains it also comes with a cost.
As I write this, I am enjoying some coffee and considering what caffeine has done for my creative juices.
Should I be concerned that I like my coffee? A stat in the article says up to ninety percent of adults ingest caffeine regularly. It’s a drug that businesses favor because it boosts productivity. Almost every office has coffee brewing. Creatives rely on coffee to get going in the morning. This is especially true considering how creatives like to be night owls. What would the world look like with a caffeine and coffee ban? I shudder to think.
The only thing I’m sure of is it would allow cats to take over the world. My illustration shows what I believe my cat would’ve done to me without that morning perk.
Could I quit coffee anytime I want? Sure I could. Just don’t give the cat a heads up if I ever decided to attempt this horror.
I nearly spit out my coffee when I heard the dreadful news the other day. It seems the Swiss Government was considering taking coffee off of the Essential-to-Life list.
It’s rather humorous, even to this coffee drinker. If the world was coming to an end, would coffee really matter? It would be a comfort, but essential to life?
We get fixated on things we consider valuable and begin stockpiling them. We become stingy before we know it. All those coffee beans could be useful now. Do we really need to stockpile 16,000 tons of coffee for a population of 8 million people?
It reminds me of this Proverb:
Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.
Proverbs 11:24 NLT
We end up losing the very thing we are stingy about. Before you stockpile money, wealth or coffee, consider if what you are holding back may make you poorer in the end.