Do you love coffee? I sure do!

As a mom of young kids, coffee is vital to my energy levels, but I really love everything about it—the smell, the ritual of brewing it, the warm kick of comfort it gives to your morning, the coziness of a hot mug, and the way people can connect over a cup or two.

Sometimes I dream about becoming a coffee connoisseur because right now, though I love it, I don’t know much about the complexities of coffee. I can tell a light roast from a dark roast. I know that I like mochas. I can tell when coffee has set out too long and is burnt—but that’s it.

I’m holding back from learning more about coffee because part of me knows that if I became a connoisseur, I’d have to spend more money and time on my daily coffee ritual. My coffee life would grow richer, but my bank account? Not so much! Learning more about coffee would “wreck” my current contentment with what is probably mediocre coffee.

The same is true about life with Jesus—the more you become a connoisseur of the things of God, the more it “wrecks” certain aspects of life for you.

Romans 3:20 says, “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” The more we study the Bible, the more we learn that God hates sin. He hates when we hate each other, when we steal and lie, when we cheapen his gift of sex, and when we worship ourselves over anything else.

He hates it so much that he sent Jesus to earth to live as a human man, perfectly, for over 30 years. God let his Son be unfairly executed in our place so that we wouldn’t have to pay for our sin with a life sentence in hell. Jesus came back to life after three days to prove he is victorious and that heaven is ours forever—and we get that unbelievable gift for free! As the book of Romans goes on to proclaim, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (6:22,23).

Once you know those beautiful truths about God, your old life of sinning has been wrecked for you. You’re a new person! You want to obey the commands God gives us in the Bible—“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:2,3).

You want to spend your time learning about the Savior of the world who gave himself up for you. Going to church and Bible study turns into a delight! Prayer is transformed from a “have to” into a “want to.” When the plate gets passed at church, you’re eager to give your money as an offering. You end up wanting to give your time to encourage and help others.

Living as a Christian, a true connoisseur of Christ, will wreck some things for you. You might spend more time and money on Jesus—but you’ll have a much richer life, not just here on earth but in the life to come in heaven.

That’s a connoisseur worth becoming.