Sail into summer reading (continued)

Coffee for the soul

Percolating  insight, wit, and humor to help you wake up to your life

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Any coffee lover knows the joy of anticipating that first sip of freshly brewed java. As the aroma fills the senses and the dark liquid hits the palate, it is more than simply a hot beverage. Your morning coffee is a wake-up call, an invitation to the joy and challenges of a new day—a concept around which Nicole Johnson bases her book Fresh Brewed Life: A Stirring Invitation to Wake Up Your Soul.

This book encourages women to be authentic and to get a fresh perspective on their lives and themselves. The author compares the waking up of our souls to the way we experience freshly brewed coffee. Before we can enjoy that steaming cup, the beans need to be roasted and finely ground. In a similar way, in our lives, we often experience a fresh outlook on life after we have been tested (“roasted” and “finely ground”) by pain and adversity. In each chapter, Johnson draws upon personal illustrations, Scripture, and quotations from other authors (like Henri Nouwen), as well as offering suggestions of additional books, movies, and music to deepen our study of this topic.

I pick up Fresh Brewed Life regularly . . . almost like a handbook. When the events of life begin to steal my enthusiasm, this book takes me back to my core relationship with my creator, reminds me of what is important in life, and gives me practical advice for taking steps to restore my joy in Christ. While this book is introspective, it is also full of wit, humor, and great ideas to enrich the potential leisure that the summer schedule affords.

Heidi Bingaman ’81 earned a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics at Messiah College. She and her husband, Chris, are co-chairs of the College’s Parents Council and part of a third-generation family business, Bingaman and Son Lumber, Inc. They have four daughters, two of whom are Messiah College alumnae. Heidi volunteers at their younger daughters’ school and for organizations such as Junior Achievement. A book has been written about their family’s journey through cancer entitled The Promise of God’s Presence. Her favorite place to read is the window seat of her home overlooking the hills of central Pennsylvania.