One of my favorite places in the world is Koinonia, our church’s retreat center near Annandale. I have spent rich, rewarding and very fun times there with people of all ages. There is so much I love about Koinonia…the beauty of the woods, Lake Sylvia, the quiet of the chapel, the labyrinth in the upper field…and the coffee cups. Some time ago the staff asked for donations of coffee cups that people no longer wanted at home. Hanging on the wall behind the coffee pots are hooks with a wide array of cups…some plain, some with logos of churches, another that says"I Love Teachers" displaying a bright,red apple, another created for the Olson family reunion 2001, countless others received as thank you gifts from donations to various organizations.

I love watching people choose their coffee cup. First, they stand and take them all in. Some choose by color, others by shape. Some even take a cup down, hold it in both hands, maybe even lift it toward their mouth to check out the "feel" of drinking from this cup. When given the opportunity, I always choose a pottery cup, one that is made of earth tones….brown,gold,green…..one heavy and not glossy. My coffee cup has to feel firm in my hands, hold the heat of the coffee so I can warm my hands, and in turn my body as I drink.

Joyce Rupp, an author who has inspired me over the years, uses the simplicity of the coffee cup as a metaphor for our inner spiritual journey. She uses the coffee cup to design prayer practices that we can  use in our everyday lives. She writes:Whatever the coffee cup holds has to eventually be emptied out so that something more can be put into it. I have learned that I cannot always expect my life to be full. There has to be some emptying, some pouring out, if I am to make room for the new. The spiritual journey is like that-a constant process of emptying and filling, of giving and receiving, of accepting and letting go.

Lent can be an  "emptying out time". Lent can be a time to choose your coffee cup with intention and allow it to be a vessel to be filled and emptied, filled and emptied, as a practice of prayer, to hold your life, to warm you from the inside out, to make room for something new. I offer this practice to you.

Blessings on your choosing, blessings on the cup you choose, blessings on its fullness and emptying,blessings on the journey.