Beyond the Spilled Cup

I was a waitress for a couple of years when I was in high school. For the most part, it was a fun job, but it required a lot of balancing. Trays full of food are a lot to handle, but a tray full of cups filled, which requires much more balance and concentration. Any slight bump or jostle could cause the liquid to spill out.

In life, it’s easy to look good when everything is going smoothly. Yet, when life throws unfavorable circumstances at us, when we are bumped or jostled, that’s when we find out what we’re like on the inside. What runs over when your cup is tossed about?

If you kept a cup very still, never moved it, nothing would ever spill out, but if jostled, whatever is inside of them comes spilling out, right? That’s a good analogy for us. When shoved, bumped, or pushed, how we react is what spills out of us. It’s amazing how quickly we learn about ourselves in those moments.

 

Jesus tells us it’s not only how we look on the outside, but also what is in our hearts. Think about this a moment. If I lined up several different cups, each filled differently, then I asked you to tell me what was inside them, but all you could see was the cup, what would you think? You may think of some obvious answers. A china cup holds tea, a larger cup probably holds soup, the smaller cups usually hold espresso, coffee cups – coffee, and so on. From the outside, the answers seem quite simple.

 

But you won’t know what’s really on the inside unless the table gets disturbed or the cup tips over. The polished teacup could actually be holding muddy water, or the big soup cup could actually be filled with coffee grinds and dirt.

 

Using this analogy, let me ask you a question. What happens when you get bumped or your table is tilted, and you begin to topple over? What spills out?

There’s another analogy that went around not too long ago, maybe you’ve read it. I’ll sum up some of it.

“Say you were walking with a cup full of coffee and someone bumps into you, causing it to spill everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee?

 

The easy answer would be because someone bumped into you, but that isn’t the right answer. You spilled coffee because you had coffee in your cup. If you had tea, you would have spilled the tea. What is in the cup is what is spilled out.

Again, this analogy is like us. When life shakes you up, it’s what is inside of you that comes out. On the outside, it’s easy to look polished and put together. At a distance, anyone may see and think you’ve figured life out, and it looks like God lives in your heart completely. Yet, the question remains. What happens when you’re shaken? What spills out of your cup?”

 

It doesn’t take an earthquake to spill a cup. Many times, it’s the small tremors that can tip a cup dramatically. In life, we seem to be able to handle the big problems. We’re more prepared for those, knowing life is not always easy. It’s the little irritations that can tip our cups. An unkind word, that’s sarcastic remark, the unfair treatment.

No matter how big or small the bumps in our lives are, what spills out reveals what’s in our hearts. Joy? Gratitude? Peace? Humility? Anger? Bitterness? Revenge? Wanting to quit?

We have been provided with the cup, our hearts, but it’s up to us how to fill it.

I am going to go a little further with this. Yes, the Lord looks at our hearts and how we live, the choices we make, what we surround ourselves with, and those things that fill our hearts. We may love Jesus, claim Jesus as our Savior, but does our heart match our words? The best way to fill our heart with things that, when spilled, will show the light of Jesus, is to allow the Holy Spirit in and live the fruit of the Spirit- Galatians 5:22-23. But having the holiness of God shine through us is not only about what’s inside. If a teacup looks like it holds tea, wouldn’t it make sense that it’s holding tea? In the same way, then, shouldn’t the way others perceive us as looking like we have the Light of Jesus in our hearts, really have Him in our hearts?

One more analogy.

A pastor once preached about holiness inside and out. A brother interrupted the pastor and asked the question: “When you eat a banana, what do you eat? The inside? Or the outside?”

The pastor answered him, “The inside.”

The brother responded back to him, “So God is more concerned with what is on the inside (the heart) than what is on the outside (appearance).”

The pastor responded by asking the brother this question, “When you go to buy the bananas, what do you notice first?

The inside? Or the outside?”

The brother said, “The outside.”

The pastor replied, “Because holiness IS inside, AND out. Having a clean heart is important. But dressing as children of God is also important.”

Luke 6:45, “Good people bring good things out of the good they stored in their hearts. But evil people bring evil things out of the evil they stored in their hearts. People speak the things that are in their hearts.”

As you go about your day, I hope some of these analogies come to mind. It’s not only about our hearts that make us good Christians. It’s showing that our actions and words match. I am a Christian, I may have bad days, I may fall or fail. But I want others to know, even when my cup is spilled, bumped, or jostled, they see the Lord lives in my heart as well as shining His light through me. Each day, wake up and decide that, come what may through the day, you are going to let the Holiness of God shine through you and in you. Have a blessed, spill-free day!