Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.
He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.
After twenty minutes, he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the boiled eggs out and placed them in a bowl.
He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her, he asked.
‘Daughter, what do you see?’
‘Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,’ she hastily replied.
‘Look closer,’ he said, ‘and touch the potatoes.’ She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.
‘Father, what does this mean?’ she asked.
He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water.
However, each one reacted differently.
The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.
The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.
However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.
‘Which are you? ,’ he asked his daughter. ‘When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?’
How do you handle adversity? Are you the potato that seems strong, but when presented with multiple challenges, do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength?
Are you the egg that starts with a malleable core, but morphs with adversity? Do you have a fluid spirit, but after a challenge, become hardened and stiff? Does your ‘shell’ look the same, but on the inside are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?
Or, are you like the coffee beans? The beans actually changed the hot water, the very circumstance that brought the challenge, the adversity, the pain. When the water got hot, the beans released their fragrance and flavor. If you are like the coffee beans, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When things seem to be their darkest, you rise to the occasion to deal with the adverse situation.
Definitely some food for thought—often, we don’t realize that the “hot water” or adversity isn’t what breaks us, rather it simply reveals what is truly in our hearts!!
I Peter 1:7 —That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Zechariah 13:9 –And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
Psalm 66:10—For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried
-Tiphanie ❤️