“My cup overflows” (Psalm 23:5)
Okay, pick up the stones and get ready to throw them. I confess that I do not drink coffee. I just never could acquire a taste for it. I was having lunch with a friend once when the waitress came to our table and asked me if I would like coffee. My answer? “No thank-you, I don’t drink coffee. I’m a Christian.” The bewildered waitress turned and looked at my friend and sheepishly asked, “Um, would you like coffee?” To which my friend responded, “Yes, I would. I’m a Christian too. I just don’t make a fool of myself.” Fill my cup with some dark rich hot chocolate, topped with a mound of mini marshmallows, and I am a happy camper.
We each fill our cups with many things in life. It’s how we deal with the emptiness we feel. For some of us our cups are full of the bitterness we blame others for giving us. For some, our cups are still full of the sorrow that was poured into them years ago. For many of us our cups are full of resentment, jealousy, the pain of rejection, the guilt of sin we can’t seem to get rid of, or the secret hatred we have nourished for years. Let’s be honest; many of our cups are filled with poison that is doing damage to our hearts and minds.
I think we would all agree that we would not want to wake up in the morning, turn on the Keurig, pick-up the morning paper, and sit down in our easy chair with a cup of vinegar to drink. Vinegar is very bitter. That vinegar in our cup represents the bitterness, sorrow, pain, and guilt we have tried to get rid of in our lives but can’t seem to. We try to pour it out with tears in our eyes, but it keeps coming back and filling our cup. We cry out in prayer, desperately trying to scrub and rinse the cup, only to discover it soon fills up again with all those unwanted emotions. So, what do we do with that cup of bitter vinegar?
Imagine taking a cup that is full of vinegar to the kitchen sink and running cold refreshing water into it from the faucet. You stand there awhile just watching the cool liquid fill your cup, then overflow. As the cup is saturated with the fresh water, the pungent vinegar spills over like a flood and is washed down the drain. The bitter cup is now filled to the brim with cool clear refreshing water.
That my friends, is how we empty a cup filled with the bitter, sorrowful guilt and pain of life. If we only empty it, it will once again refill with those pungent things that torment us. We need to ask God to fill us overflowing with His Spirit, His love, His grace, His forgiveness, and the presence of His joy. And the more we yield to Him, allowing his righteousness to fill our cup, the more we will discover he not only fills our cup, but He flushes out the negative, tormenting, bitter emotions that once permeated it.
I’m too old to start drinking coffee now, but I will never be too old to let God teach me how to empty the pain of this life out of my cup, with the overflowing joy of His presence.
Darlene