Have you ever wondered how lively, great, God-fearing, life-changing churches lose their verve, miss their groove and slowly fade away?

It's rarely one thing, but a 1,000 missteps, all taken one a time. It's a slow transformation from being led by God to adopting the ways of man.

I kind of liken it to the slow creep of the price of a cup of coffee. Do you rembember when it never cost more than a buck? Now, we have people regularly shelling otut $4 bucks or more -- and thinking nothing of it.

Stealthily, without warning, we were inexorably sucked into the vortex of some mad coffee conspiracy, perpetuated by Juan Valdez, his burro and the coffee cartel.

While we were looking away, the baseline; the cost of a single cup of coffee -- began inching its way up. I remember the day clearly when I bought a cup of coffee at a 7-11 and innocently handed over a dollar bill. The clerk looked at me like I was an alien... "Like it's $1.14, man," she said. I choked as I grabbed some change and handed it over.

Once it went over a dollar, it was all over. Now, the sky is the limit.

Frothy, steamy, murky concoctions with shaved chocolate and cinnamon are brewed with milk -- steamed, whipped, or stirred. By the millions of cups we shell out two, three and four dollars apiece because it's different than plain old "joe." We never noticed the incremental, upward shift of prices.

Our church passion works much the same way. I have allowed the slow creep of things I once opposed to bully their way into my life. What I once called a lie I now call a slip of the tongue. What society once called sin is now emancipation and freedom. What was once reprehensible and wrong is simply another lapse of good judgment.

Oh, for the day of a dollar cup of coffee and an innocent heart

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