MAMAW'S SUNDAY DEVOTIONAL - Fresh-Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson

This months book selection is ...

Fresh-Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson


Taking Your First Sip
By Nicole Johnson

Would you like coffee this morning?


There is rarely a morning out when this offer fails to bring joy to my heart. At home the first thing I do in the morning is put on the coffee. Just the sound of the brewing perks me up. Often my soul does a little dance when the aroma of freshly ground beans starts to fill the kitchen.


Coffee brings warmth and comfort to my life. Part ritual, part relationship, part hope, having a cup in my hand feels as natural as holding a pencil. It stirs up memories and gratitude inside me . . .


But my favorite characteristic of coffee is the deep metaphor it holds for life. The process of making a cup of fresh-brewed coffee has given me words and insight as to what has made a fresh-brewed life for me, and what can make a fresh-brewed life for anyone. The coffee part is fairly simple: a whole coffee bean goes into the fire, emerges richer and darker, is ground up into tiny pieces, and when hot water pours over those grinds, a magical aroma and flavor are released, and a remarkable drink is created.


Because the life part is not quite as simple as the coffee part, we’ll spend the rest of the book exploring how our lives can become fresh-brewed. You’re invited to begin stirring your soul to wake up the slumbering parts and throw out the two-day-old, stale stuff in the bottom of the glass carafe. This is not freeze-dried life, like the Sanka your grandmother drank. We’re after the real McCoy—authentic, energizing, stimulating, robust life.


Fresh-Brewed Life is a journey of awakenings:


To God, as we learn to respond to his compelling love for us
To ourselves, as we recognize our true identity and it illuminates us from the inside out
To others, as we relate in new and healthy ways that bring joy and peace


Coffee is far more than a beverage… it is an invitation to life. Yours.


We only live once, and if we do it well, once is enough. This book holds ten cups of fresh-brewed life. Remember, with coffee we have to sit awhile, so don’t rush; just take it one cup at a time. See if you find the Creator of all coffee finding you and drawing you out of hiding, welcoming you, issuing the same invitation: Wake up to a richer, fuller, more flavorful life than you ever imagined.


Excerpted from Fresh-Brewed Life Copyright © 1999, 2011 Nicole Johnson. Published in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas Nelson. Used with permission. All rights reserved.