Passing on Poo
I love coffee and all things coffee! I have a coffee-themed kitchen even. When teaching fourth graders, we were studying animals and a few of my students loved animals like I love coffee. They went over the top studying bats and learned, shared, and reported information that most of us (including their teacher) didn't know about bats.
Knowing that I liked coffee, one group of students found information about bats and coffee, that even I, a professed coffee lover did not want to know about bats or coffee. But, of course, since gross things are fun to share, even if you are not a fourth graders, I'll let you in on the mystery of expensive coffee.
According to Reference.com, "Bat guano [feces] coffee, also known as kopi luwak, is made from the droppings of the Asian palm civet...When the civets eat coffee berries, the berries become fermented during the digestion process. Once the berries are digested, the indigestible part, the coffee bean, is excreted. These beans are collected, washed and roasted by farmers. Kopi luwak sells for hundreds of dollars per pound...The fermentation process gives this coffee bean its distinct flavor."
When the Pharisees gave Jesus a bad time about his disciples not washing their hands before eating he said to the crowd that had gathered, "Listen and understand. What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them" (Matthew 15:10-11). But the disciples didn't understand what Jesus was inferring so Peter asked for clarification and Jesus responded, "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person' mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts--murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them" (Matthew 15: 17-20).
So although I wouldn't be defiled by drinking "bat poo coffee," I think I'll pass. The main filth in our lives isn't what we take into our mouths, but what comes out of our mouths. There's a poster that is often seen in classrooms that should be something we all THINK about before speaking so that we are not passing on "poo" to others:
Knowing that I liked coffee, one group of students found information about bats and coffee, that even I, a professed coffee lover did not want to know about bats or coffee. But, of course, since gross things are fun to share, even if you are not a fourth graders, I'll let you in on the mystery of expensive coffee.
According to Reference.com, "Bat guano [feces] coffee, also known as kopi luwak, is made from the droppings of the Asian palm civet...When the civets eat coffee berries, the berries become fermented during the digestion process. Once the berries are digested, the indigestible part, the coffee bean, is excreted. These beans are collected, washed and roasted by farmers. Kopi luwak sells for hundreds of dollars per pound...The fermentation process gives this coffee bean its distinct flavor."
When the Pharisees gave Jesus a bad time about his disciples not washing their hands before eating he said to the crowd that had gathered, "Listen and understand. What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them" (Matthew 15:10-11). But the disciples didn't understand what Jesus was inferring so Peter asked for clarification and Jesus responded, "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person' mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts--murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them" (Matthew 15: 17-20).
So although I wouldn't be defiled by drinking "bat poo coffee," I think I'll pass. The main filth in our lives isn't what we take into our mouths, but what comes out of our mouths. There's a poster that is often seen in classrooms that should be something we all THINK about before speaking so that we are not passing on "poo" to others:
Proverbs 18:8 and 26:22
The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
they go down to the inmost parts.
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