Skinny Sleeper Latte

I recently heard someone order a “Skinny Sleeper Latte” in a coffee shop. The description explained that it was made with decaffeinated coffee and non-fat milk. I think I would have called it a “Why Bother?”

It tastes like a latte, but it is all foam and no power. Unfortunately, that is too accurate a description of faith for most of us. It makes us feel warm inside but does little to enliven our lives or transform the patterns of our living.

There is nothing more dangerous to our souls than having it too good. The abundance of possessions has done little to fill the void in our souls, and the self-satisfied person is rarely fully awake and alive.

Like the muscles of our body, our souls are made stronger by resistance. If everything we touch quickly and easily turns to gold then little is challenged or awakened within us. That is a skinny sleeper latte.

In baseball, the best players strike out two-thirds of the time. It is how we deal with all of those strikeouts that determines if we really are a winner or just play one on TV.

Fantasia was considered one of Walt Disney’s biggest failures. Oh, today it is regarded as a masterpiece and has probably taught more children to appreciate classical music than any music teacher could ever dream, but in Disney’s lifetime Fantasia was considered a financial and artistic flop.

Movie critics put Disney’s work into a box, and if it didn’t fit neatly in that box then it must be a failure. Of course, that wasn’t true about him then, and it isn’t true about us now. That, however, doesn’t keep us from letting others try to define us.

Living safely and comfortably will allow us to avoid criticism, but it also amounts to falling asleep at the wheel of our lives. The person who isn’t failing isn’t trying to accomplish very much, and the life that is safe from criticism isn’t accomplishing very much.

When was the last time you saw a statue erected to honor a critic?
by Michael Piazza
Co_Executive Director
The Center for Progressive Renewal