We're Meant to Live Free

Today is day 29 of my 30 days of free coffee. I’m not exactly sure how I even qualified for this perk. 

I got an email from Panera on April 1, inviting me to stop in for a free coffee every day in April. I thought surely this must be an April fool's joke.

I checked with my cubicle colleagues, asking if anyone else got the email. Nope. Just me.

So when I finally got around to stopping at Panera on the fourth of April, I hesitantly held out my phone to the cashier, “Ummm, I got this email that said I get a free coffee in April?” 

I expected her to laugh and say she didn’t know what I was talking about. But she nodded and handed me a cup. “Here you go.” 

I figured I should order something to say thanks a latte, so I stayed for lunch. 

{Surely you knew there'd be a coffee pun or two?}

I realized that buying something to go with the coffee was probably the point of this little promotion, but I tried it again the next day, a little bolder, “I’m here for my free coffee.”

“Anything else?” the cashier said. 

I was brave now.  “No, just the coffee.”

Even though I felt a little sheepish at the coffee station, I was warming up to this idea of free coffee for a month.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little suspicious of free. I wonder what’s expected in return. I’m skeptical of no strings attached. 

Maybe I shouldn’t entertain this perspective. Because I think we’re meant to live free.

Your version of living free probably looks different than mine does, but maybe you can relate? 

I know my single-girl life frees me to have a white couch and pink chairs in my living room, arranged however I'd like {as a friend who admired this freedom told me, since her husband's world is turned upside down if she tries to move the TV}. 

I'm free to read all night, eat cereal for supper, leave cosmetics strewn across the bathroom counter and devote an entire dresser to jewelry storage.

I mostly treasure these freedoms until I mistake these sweet liberties as limitations, thinking I'm entitled to what I don't have.

Because sometimes I confuse what truly makes me live free.

God doesn’t need me {or any of us} to carry out his plans. He invites us into his purposes and designs, and we freely choose to be a part of them.

God plants passions and dreams in our hearts, giving us hope and courage to pursue them, offering the choice {and freedom} of trusting him with the outcome. 

That God freely gives those who come seeking him access to his heart with the opportunity to experience him in every circumstance, every season of our lives, is a freedom that's priceless.

Through faith, we approach God with freedom and confidence. {Eph. 3:12}

The world doesn’t need another blog. It certainly doesn't need my blog.

But if I don't write a blog, then I miss out on the way God freely invites me into his plans. 

Writing frees my soul to create my own personal kind of art and to experience God through it. 

And maybe your blog, your writing, your art or your passion of caring for your family that you think no one notices is the very way God freely invites you to join him in his plans for you, others, and maybe even the world.

During one of my free coffee days, I sat near the order-line and listened to the cashier ask customers if they wanted a Panera rewards card. 

When they declined she’d say, “Are you sure? Some of our customers are enjoying free coffee for the entire month of April.”

All of them still said no. They turned down free.

I wanted to spill the beans and tell them there might not be any such thing as a free lunch in life but there truly is free coffee.

But I figured they might not appreciate me espressoing myself. 

{Last coffee pun, I promise!}

I’m going to miss my free coffee. Maybe some of the best things in life are free. 

I'm linking up with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart. Join us there for more inspiration for your day!