Dregs

I once told Laura that I'd given up coffee for good, but my nine o'clock classes this quarter have prompted me to jump back into the caffeine cesspool. Well, I guess that's a little harsh. Coffee's not that bad, and neither are teas or sodas. In fact, I enjoy all of them for their tastes, sweetened and/or caffeinated or neither. The only problem I draw from them is that they mostly contain caffeine, which is as addictive a drug as any, legal as it may be. I've seen the effects of caffeine addiction in my father, though he's been able to wean himself down to a necessary one dose a day. That's good and all, but it still pains me to hear him in my memory as being snappy in the pre-caffeine mornings. But such is the requirement of all persons who are expected to work late nights--students, doctors, teachers, counselors, lawyers, radio hosts, computer people...the list goes on, but it mainly focuses on those who either are overburdened or are "on call." Reader, I probably will fall in this category for the rest of my life, if I plan on pursuing the pastoral ministry after my years primarily being a student conclude. I would much crave your prayers for joy and endurance in these late hours. Pastors are both teachers and counselors. Yet do not even pastors feel the pains of their task? Jesus, our great shepherd, felt these pangs in the Garden of Gethsemane--

And He [Jesus] went a little beyond them [James, John, and Peter], 
and fell on His face and prayed, saying,
"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 
Matthew 26:39


He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, 
"My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done."   
Matthew 26:42 


Jesus was grieved to drink the "Cup of Redemption" (see my previous post for more), which is His "blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26:28), and from which He commands all of His disciples to drink from it. Besides thinking of this picture of the Lord's Supper whenever I drink of our coffee's dregs, I believe dregs have retained their meaning today of being "the bitter end" of a task primarily because of this biblical picture. The dregs are the last drops of a drink, whether coffee or tea or wine--and they are usually filled with the very unsettling bitter grains used to brew or distill or ferment. The Bible portrays these grains as being a sign of complete judgment, just as physical dregs indicate a fully drained cup. (Hence, the Grapes of Wrath)

But God is the Judge;
He puts down one and exalts the other. 
For a cup is in the hand of the LORD,
and the wine foams;
it is well mixed,
and He pours out of this; 
Surely all the wicked of the earth
must drain and drink down its dregs. 
Psalm 75:7-8


These dregs remind me of my Savior's grueling mission, to turn our cup of wrath into a cup of joy, that our broken and shriveled hearts would receive a truer blood, a truer wine, a truer Spirit than the blood of Abel, than the wine of this world, than the spirit of our fallen estate that is content to remain in ashes and filth and dust, like the leprous dead that we are. These dregs remind me that my Jesus downed the cup of the new covenant, shedding His blood for our forgiveness, that we no longer need to drink the justice away. This is from where J. K. Rowling drew her Horcrux Cave scene in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when Dumbledore drinks 12 cups of poison (one for each tribe of Israel, I'd add as a subtext...) in order to reveal the symbol of Voldemort's life, suffering in mortal agony the entire time. Dumbledore drank those cups so that Harry would not have to, counting himself "much older, much cleverer, and much less valuable," and though it may be a stretch and more than a little heretical, Jesus makes that same claim in the garden of the olive-press. He declares me, the chief of sinners, as worthy to die for. If God were only like men, we would send Him to modern "psychology," in the attempts to "straighten" Him out--surely only a fool would die for a worthless, penniless, guilty, hateful, and unlovely sinner.

But God demonstrates His own love for us,
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8


This is an incredible love. Seriously. Like, who does that? But here's something for you, reader, if you're inclined towards calculus: our love is derived from God's love.

Gah. I'm pretty distractible tonight.

It's Tuesday of finals week, and I should be studying. But my only final tomorrow is Music Theory, which I absolutely adore, and I don't really need to study for this one--it's pretty fundamental. The fundamentals are still pretty much the greatest and most profound parts, I've found. Back to the beginning, as they say.

Back to the beginning of this post.... dregs.

I drink the dregs of my family's coffeepot not to redeem wayward sinners, but to remind myself that coffee is a drug. I am committed to never let any drug rule over me, so I continue to down the bitter dregs. I'm not sure if it honestly wakes me up in the mornings or not--and I'm not sure if I can call it hydration if I drink it black (Black coffee puts hair on your chest, as my grandfather says), since coffee is a diuretic (it makes you pee, killing the hydration factor).

Here are a couple thoughts that I'm both too lazy to organize and too busy to think through:

1. Calvin and I have long disputed what would happen if we were placed on an abandoned ship filled with tomatoes and steaks. I'm sure in the occasion, I would eat some of the detestable things, and Calvin would get some filet mignon to go with his poison apples, but I'd hope he would agree to eat more than his share of tomatoes. Ewww.

1.5. Calvin got his braces off today! Yay!! We can celebrate by opening the bottle of Kofola tomorrow!

2. Isaiah 51.

Therefore, 
please hear this, you afflicted, 
who are drunk, but not with wine:
Thus says your Lord,
the LORD,
even your God
who contends for His people, 
"Behold, I have taken out of your hand
the cup of reeling, the chalice of My anger; 
you will never drink it again.


"I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
who have said to your soul,
'Lie down that we may walk over you.'
You have even made your back like the ground
and like the street for those who walk over it." 
Isaiah 51:21-23

You know you've been drinking too much coffee when lukewarm water tastes cold.