Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 104 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
Life is Like Brewing Coffee
Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 104 of our Trek. Yesterday we discovered 10 truths about how life is like hiking through the world. Today we will stay at camp and discuss how life is like a good cup of coffee.
In celebration of our 100th day of our Wisdom-Trek, please check out Wisdom-Trek.com and sign up for our drawing for a free Wisdom-Trek t-shirt that will take place on October 5th.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. The refinishing of the woodwork in our dining room continues, and we are making progress. Today a couple of our friends from Charlotte are coming in for the weekend as Marietta celebrates the 40th annual Sternwheel Festival.
The Sternwheel Festival is the single largest event for Marietta each year, usually drawing in about 100,000 people. This is large for a city whose population is about 15,000 within the city limits. The fireworks display over the Ohio River is one of the most spectacular fireworks displays that we have seen anywhere. This year they will also have some of the firework displays set up on the bridge that crosses between Ohio and West Virginia. The last time they had that it was awe inspiring. We will round out the weekend with me speaking again at Putnam Congregational Church before heading back to Charlotte.
We are sitting around the camp fire today sipping on a large mug of coffee, listening to the crackling of the firewood, and watching the smoke wisp into the air until it is no longer visible. As we are chatting about the day and enjoying our coffee, it brings to my mind the 9 rules on how life is like a brewing a good pot of coffee.
Each day of your life is part of your story. Just like the coffee we are drinking, life is fluid with people and events moving around us, much like the coffee swirls around in our mugs. You don’t know with certainty how your story will end, but the choices that you make each day and your attitude will certainly impact the outcome of your story. Today let us learn how to both create a great pot of coffee and how to create a great life story.
1. Buy Fresh Beans
Always fill your life with fresh, pertinent learning and information. Don’t allow your knowledge and significance to become stale and outdated. You need to invest in yourself by improving your body, mind, and soul.
2. Keep Coffee Beans Fresh
Keep yourself relevant. Once you invest in self-improvement in any or all areas of life, continue using this information. Don’t stop improving. If it is knowledge, continue to stay fresh by updating yourself as it changes. If it is eating wholesome foods, don’t fall back into unhealthy habits. If it is exercise, continue to exercise regularly. If it is spiritual study and mediation, continue to learn. Stay fresh.
3. Choose Good Coffee
Invest in good books and audio study programs, wholesome foods, good exercise equipment, and sound meditation and Bible study materials from wise individuals that live by what they teach. Choose quality over quantity.
4. Grind Your Own Coffee
Think and do for yourself. Don’t take short cuts just for the sake of convenience. Don’t just take someone else’s conclusion as always right and true. Always compare it to what you know to be right and wise. Especially compare what you are learning with what the Bible says is correct. Using mentors is wise, but make sure you are using wise mentors. In eating and exercising, take the time to prepare properly for the maximum benefit. The church in Berea was commended for this in Acts 17:11, “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.”
5. Use Good Water
Even with good coffee beans, the flavor is best when it is brewed with filtered, purified water. Make sure that in all areas of life you are supplementing with pure thoughts and motives. As Zig Ziglar would say, “We all need a daily check up from the neck up to avoid stinkin’ thinkin’ which ultimately leads to hardening of the attitudes.” Always purify your thoughts for maximum benefit.
6. Avoid Cheap Filters
Related to Rule #5, make sure you are using good filters in your life to avoid hampering your progress. I am not a proponent of watching or listening to most media outlets today. Regardless if they are conservative or liberal, they primarily spew sensational vomit at you to get you wound up and coming back for more. It is so easy to get worked up about those issues we have little or no control over. It will warp your minds, and take your focus of what is really important in life. As the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Philippi Chapter 4 verses 8-9, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me — everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
7. Don’t Skimp On the Coffee
When you are consuming what is good for you in body, mind, and soul, don’t skimp by thinking that there won’t be enough to last. Have an abundance mindset not a scarcity mindset. I am not referring to money here but true wealth in all areas of life. Enjoy that which is good. In Jesus’s parable about the seed and various types of soil, He tells us about the good soil in Luke 8:15 saying, “And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.” Be good soil, so you will produce a huge harvest.
8. Beware of the Heat
To brew an excellent cup of coffee, the water cannot be too cool nor should it be boiling. The ideal temperature for good coffee is 190°- 200°. In the same way, we will be at our best when we have some “heat and pressure” on us to succeed but too much becomes detrimental and can damage us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Make sure that you keep in the correct heat zone for you, which may vary for different people.
9. Keep Your Equipment Clean
Stay pure and full of integrity. Don’t allow the temptations for shortcuts in your life damage you. You will only perform at your peak when you don’t have any baggage that is dragging you down, as it indicates in these verses.
Psalms 119:1, “Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.”
Proverbs 2:7, “He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.”
So, today we have not only learned the best way to brew an excellent pot of coffee, but we have also learned how to become a more excellent individual. With this knowledge, please join us tomorrow for another day of Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy when we will learn why success is always temporary, keeping in mind that failure is also.
That will finish our podcast for today. If you missed any of our previous podcasts, please check out Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Spreaker, YouTube, or Wisdom-Trek.com.
If you enjoy our daily doses of wisdom, I encourage you to take the time to invest yourself.
- Invest in improving Wisdom-Trek by leaving your name, email address, and a comment on our website, so we can provide you with wisdom and insights that best fit your needs.
- Invest in yourself by listening to our 7 minutes of wisdom each day.
- Invest in the lives of others by encouraging your family and friends to journey with us on our Wisdom-Trek.
Thank you!
The journal from this podcast can be found at Wisdom-Trek.com, where we also have pictures, tweetable quotes, wisdom nuggets, and free resources.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.
As we take this Trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy the Journey, and Create a Great Day! See you tomorrow!