Coffee, God? Really?

“Coffee, God? Really?”

I stood in my kitchen, about to make my morning cup, when I heard it clear as day: give up coffee.

I’ve worked really hard to hear God in my life, so I listened. No arguing, no delaying—I stopped that day, cold turkey. And the biggest lesson I learned from it had nothing to do with coffee.

Lent was always about giving something up for 40 days. But this year made me realize—it may not always be about giving something up. Sometimes God might ask me to pick something up, to add something in, and that kind of obedience can be just as meaningful.

The first 7 days of no coffee were intense. I knew I would have withdrawals, but I wasn’t sure how that was going to be expressed in my body. Well, it showed up as a 7-day, dull, lingering headache that just would not let up 😣. Each morning, I woke up and prayed the headache wouldn’t be there—and each day for 7 days, it was. That part was not fun, for sure.

But once the headaches subsided (thank goodness!!!), I realized that my stomach wasn’t having that consistent bloated feeling I had been dealing with for years. I had NO idea that coffee might be the reason for that 🤯. I still haven’t figured out the exact correlation, but it made me wonder how many things we live with for years without questioning them.

After that first week, it felt pretty easy to go without it. I missed the ritual of something warm in the morning, though, so I tried to replace it—but nothing quite made me as happy as a cup of coffee would. I landed on hot chocolate most mornings simply because I wanted that ritual, but it never felt quite the same.

About two weeks before the 40 days were up, I started agonizing over whether I should add coffee back in. I analyzed it from every angle, and I just couldn’t decide.

I realized my biggest takeaway from this whole journey had nothing to do with coffee…

I could do hard things.

God was reminding me of something I had forgotten.

I did decide to add coffee back in, but that first cup didn’t hit like I thought it would. And now I find myself wondering if adding it back in was really the right choice.

Only time will tell… but I have a feeling this wasn’t really about coffee at all.