To Bean or Not to Bean

I’ve been thinking a lot about ministry lately.  I’ve also been drinking a lot of coffee.  There are a lot of independent coffee roasters and retailers in Spokane, where I’m spending my apostolic year.  One is the “Supreme Bean”.  When I saw it, I was reminded of my childhood when I often wondered why people were called “human beans”.

Human beans? Coffee? Ministry?  What’s the connection?  Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been very guilty of judging myself by how much or how little I “do” and by how well or how poorly I “do” it.  The truth is, we aren’t called ‘human doers’, ‘human dids’, or ‘human will do-s’. We are called ‘human beings’.  Being is defined as “the state of existing; the most important or basic part of a person's mind or self.”  We can learn from the past, but we can’t ‘be’ there.  We can think of the future, but we can’t ‘be’ there.  We can only ‘be’ in the present.

There’s the connection.  We are most authentically the human beings God created us to be when we are present to the moment and to the people with whom we journey.  Worries about ‘doing’ absent presence really don’t amount to a hill of beans.

Our presence brings the light of Christ to the world.  How are we letting it shine?

Sr. Kathy Flynn

Spokane, WA