I’ve always loved writing in coffee shops. It feels sort of like the atmosphere is…literary. Somehow. Plus the actual atmosphere. The air itself. Oh, that magnificent smell of coffee. I’m pretty sure the aroma alone caffeinates a writer’s brain and gets all the neurons a-firing. A friend gave me a coffee shop scratch-and-sniff bookmark once. No big surprise, it wasn’t the same. So at the most daunting deadlines—and especially when I’ve waited until the last-lastest of all the last-last minutes and I’m freaking out a little—I’ve still been know to pack up and head for a real-live coffee spot.
I walked into my fave coffee café with a writer buddy one time, took a big whiff, and said, “Smells just like a book deadline in here.” My friend came right back with, “Smells like procrastination to me.”
Potato/Po-tah-to.
Which also reminds me that my go-to (go-to-because-I-gotta-deadline) coffee cafe has pastries too. And sandwiches. Even soup. They have a potato-/po-tah-to soup that’s my absolute fave.
Sometime back as I was leaving, I got some of that soup to go. I only got it as far as the back of the car, however. I forgot to take it in the house. Then I loaned my car to one of my kids for about a week.
By the time I got the car back, I couldn’t even tell you what was in that container. Can soup actually go primordial on you? Because I’m pretty sure I heard scratching sounds coming from in there. Scary scratching. And I never ever want to sniff that. No scratchy, no sniffy. The car smelled like we’d started a compost in it. Or maybe it was more like the monkey cages at the zoo. Either way, nobody wants to sniff that. My hair was a mess for a couple of weeks. Windows-down was the only way to go anywhere in that car.
In Hebrews 11, the “Hall of Faith,” we read that God gave Abraham a to-go order of a different kind. What did Abraham do? He went. Straight out. He packed up his faith and hit the road. “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8 ESV). Going. Even before getting the “where.” What a great example of a laudable to-go kind of faith.
We’ve been given a to-go order too. In John 20:21, the resurrected Jesus said to His followers, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (CSB). He also made no bones about it in Matthew 28:19-20. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (CSB). His “go” is our glorious charge. I’m so thankful we never have to do the going alone. He promises His presence. Always. His presence ever empowers the to-going. And it’s His presence that makes it the greatest, most fulfilling joy.
Windows up or windows down.