Chaplain's Corner: Hot Chocolate Published June 19, 2008 By Chaplain (Maj.) Eliezer Castanon Tinker Chapel TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- How is it that you rate your quality of life? Is it by what you have or don't have? Is it by your status in society or the rank you have in the military? Is it by the health you enjoy or don't enjoy? What about family, job, friends, money invested, etc? We tend to look at the things mentioned above and say we have a good life or not. I believe we need to do away with the external way we see things. There is a saying in the island I come from that says, "Not everything that shines is gold." Let's not focus on the looks, instead let's focus on the content. The following story clarifies this concept. My hope is that you can look at things in a different way. A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking and expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... and then you began eyeing each other's cups." Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society and in the military are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly... and enjoy your hot chocolate.