There’s a quote I came across recently that stopped me in my tracks:
“If you can’t be happy with a coffee, you won’t be happy with a yacht.” — Naval Ravikant
I read that, and something in me nodded. Not the mind, not the ego looking for the next big thing—but the part of me that knows presence. The part of me that has lived the restless striving, the wanting, the more, and the more after that. The part that knows what it’s like to chase fulfillment like it’s a moving finish line.
I’ve convinced myself so many times in my life that happiness was over there—across the field, behind the next promotion, down the road of “one day,” or tucked away in someone else’s approval. But the truth is, if my joy can’t show up in the simplest corners of my life, it won’t suddenly appear when the world hands me something bigger.
If I can’t taste gratitude in the warmth of a morning coffee, I won’t taste it on a yacht cutting across the ocean. If I can’t feel God’s presence in an ordinary Monday, I won’t find Him on a five-star trip to paradise. If I can’t be content with who I am right now, no accomplishment, no applause, no blessing will ever be enough to convince me I’m whole.
It’s not that dreams, ambitions, or even yachts are wrong. It’s just that joy doesn’t arrive packaged in status. Joy doesn’t require luxury. Joy, real joy, is the internal knowing that what I have in this moment is enough—because God is enough.
I think about Jesus, sitting with friends, breaking bread. The Messiah—God Himself—finding connection and meaning in the most ordinary acts. Not in palaces, not surrounded by wealth, but in simplicity.
Happiness isn’t something I earn out there. It’s something I allow in here. Maybe the coffee is the test. Not a test from God, but a test of awareness.
Can I sit, be still, inhale, and say, “Thank You—this moment is enough”?
Because if I can learn to be full in the small, I won’t lose myself in the big.
“Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.”
Proverbs 15:16
“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”
Philippians 4:11
Loving God,
Let me see the gift of this moment. Teach me to taste joy in the simple things— a sunrise, a cup of coffee, a breath I didn’t earn. Free me from the belief that happiness waits for me somewhere else. Show me that You are here, in the ordinary. Let contentment grow roots in me so deep that no storm, no blessing, no change of circumstance can pull me away from Your peace.
Amen.
