The Significance of Three Percent

Only 3% of the world's coffee meets our standards.

~Starbucks

As I sit here tonight in a Starbucks that particular phrase on the top shelf of a display catches my attention.  Only 3%.....  That means that 97% of the coffee produced in the entire world fails to make the cut for this company.  For someone who is not a numbers fan those particular numbers are interesting somehow.  Maybe it's because I've been contemplating my past a lot lately.

It seems like I've spent a lot of my life feeling like I'm part of some rejected minority.  Never the first to be chosen for anything and often feeling like the default solution when I did end up playing a role of any significance.  Often times it seems that my belief that I'm less than enough is born out by being replaced by others or having the unneeded information shared of why I wouldn't have been the first choice for a particular role as my inadequacies were laid before me.  

I've spent a lot of the last year feeling that sense of rejection.  A sense that I was part of a rejected 3% while the other 97% was running full speed ahead toward..... I'm not  really sure what they are running toward, but they seem to be running at least while I just feel part of nothing.  

But now I find myself thinking only 3%.....  And I start to see my perspective change.  Starbucks has a reputation.  Some would argue it is one of highly priced coffee, but the reality is that they are so particular with their standards that it means they pay more for a premium product therefore they must charge more for that premium product.  

Only 3%....  I remember reading a blog post a few months ago suggesting more thought should go into using a particular song in worship.  That song happens to be one of my favorite worship songs for the exact reason the post suggested caution.  It's a song that offers all of oneself to God.  It's a plea for deeper relationship.  

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without boarders

Let me walk upon the waters wherever you would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Saviour."

So I find myself contemplating that 3% again. What if what others point out as inadequacies are actually the things that God uses to keep me close to Him?  What if they are part of His refining process for me?  I think one thing I've always realized about myself is that when I'm the most unsure I find myself looking to God the most often.  What if the things that  separate me from the 97% running a full speed are the very things that are making part of something great that  God wants to accomplish?  Out of 12 disciples Peter was the only one to get out of the boat.  Peter was the one who was willing to go into places where he was out of his depth and his inadequacies were exposed so that Jesus could call him out to great things later.

And so I find myself contemplating the significance of 3%...