"And may you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi."

There are a few types of people in our world:

1. Those who do not drink coffee.

2. Those who drink coffee.

3. And those who drink "coffee."

The people who drink “coffee” are like me: the people who add so much to it - half the cup is cream, three packets of sugar - that it isn’t even coffee anymore. All my real coffee-drinking friends tell me I’m not really a coffee drinker (and they’re right!), because it won’t even be coffee anymore by the time I’m done with it. It really does become a different drink. Now, the hardcore people who drink coffee (notice, no quotation marks) are usually pretty foundational: black coffee - minimal if any cream, no sugar, no flavors. Just coffee, as it was meant to be.

Wherever you are on the spectrum, you may have noticed that the “coffee” drinkers emerge when it’s cold outside, when seasonal drinks like Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Peppermint Mochas come out. (Again, this is me.) Real coffee drinker spottings happen with coffee all year round - summer, winter, regardless. The “coffee” drinkers get “coffee” every once in a while, when they feel like it, when it’s convenient. The real, serious coffee drinkers pretty much depend on it for survival. (Am I right, coffee lovers?) They have it every day, multiple times a day. And if you’ve ever been with someone who truly has an addiction or obsession with coffee, you probably know they won’t even be the same person without it. And then, of course, there are people who hate coffee.

Coffee is like following Jesus. 

There are people who hate Jesus. There are people who "follow" Jesus, who may even follow him when it’s accessible and easy and convenient, when mission trip season rolls around, when they’re at church, when they feel like following him, when they want him. They like the taste they’ve gotten of Jesus, but they don’t depend on him. Watered down He’s great! But full-strength, full-force Jesus is a little too much.

And there are people who follow Jesus daily, who go to him for their strength and energy, who recognize their need for Jesus and go to him to fill that need. They are willing to go out of their way and be late to work or class to stop for coffee, to stop for Jesus. They are known by their friends as Jesus followers, all year round and in all types of weather. They go to him every day multiple times a day. They depend on him. And they aren't the same person without Him.

Now, this whole concept might be a bit cheesy, but bare with me. And think about it.

The question has changed from "do you drink 'coffee?'" to "do you drink coffee?" 

From "do you 'follow' Jesus?” to “how closely are you following Jesus?”

I heard someone speak on this whole idea of following Jesus closely a few years ago, and the example he gave was so brilliant and has stuck with me since. Take a look at this picture of Martin Luther King Jr. during his March on Washington.

A quarter of a million people were “following” Martin Luther on that day. All of those people behind him were “following” him, and all of them could personally attest to have been apart of the March on Washington and the civil rights movement. But if you look at a picture of the march, of Martin Luther King Jr., who do we see? Do we see the people in the back who tagged along to the crowd? 

Those people are too far back. We see the people who were literally with MLK. We see the people who were with him from the beginning and are going to be with him to the end. Fat chance that the people in the back actually knew Martin Luther to some extent personally, either; that privilege was only given to the people in the front, to the people following closely, to the people he walked with hand in hand.

And who do you think would have gotten arrested or kicked, chastised, spat on by the police along with Martin Luther? It would have been the people in the front, the people on his right and left, the people right behind him. This may be historically inaccurate, but I think you could even argue that most of the people who were truly passionate about the cause were right up there with Martin Luther. 

And so we ask ourselves, where do we stand? There were people who hated Martin Luther and his cause and didn’t follow him at all; there were people who “followed” Martin Luther because they agreed with his cause and there was a big crowd they could tag along with; and there were the people who followed Martin Luther, who knew him, who were beside him, who endured the pain he did, even though it wasn’t easy or convenient. In our pursuit of Jesus, where are we? Are we spitting at him and chastising him like the police did to MLK, are we trailing behind and following the crowd, or have we picked up our crosses, denied ourselves, and committed to following him as close as we possibly can? 

There’s an old Jewish saying that I find so beautiful, especially in regards to this concept:

"And may you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi."

It's the idea that Jesus’ disciples, not his "followers," were following so closely behind him that they were often covered in the dust that his shoes kicked up. Only if you were following closely behind Jesus could you find the dust and dirt from his shoes on yours. 

So let this be your heart's desire in your wild pursuit of Jesus and his wild pursuit of you: to become a real coffee drinker, a close and authentic Jesus-follower. Lean on his energy, depend on his strength, and seek him in all seasons. And may you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi.

posted by Taylor Fohr