The Cup

An age-old question is often used to determine our attitude toward life:

Is the glass half empty or half full?

Now, I don't know about you, but my answer often depends on the day (and the beverage involved), but generally if you see it as half empty, you're a pessimist, and if you see it as half full, you're an optimist.

Admittedly, I've been having a "glass-half-empty" time lately.  Yeah, I'm down, a little discouraged.  And because this weekend brought a great deal of joy for a number of others in my life, I emptied my glass to help fill theirs.

And now, I'm frustrated.

Why isn't anyone filling my cup?

I'm not asking for a full glass, here.  Just a swig.  A sip.  A sampling of the good stuff.

Their cups are overflowing, I think to myself.  Can't they spare a little?

Because our human nature is to be selfish and to think that when we give something, we're due something in return, we often find ourselves feeling a bit bankrupt.

Yes, it's good to encourage one another.  To fill each others' cups with love and celebration.

But the stuff we pass out to each other runs dry.

It's not an all-you-can-drink buffet of sorts.  We can't give of ourselves when our own glasses are empty.

So, you ask, where can I get an endless supply so I never run out?

In the book of John, Jesus meets with a Samaritan woman at a well.  She's minding her own business, drawing her own water, when Jesus asks her for a drink.

Because Samaritans didn't associate with Jews, she responds with something such as, "You talking to me?"

His fervent reply, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4: 1-26).

It's easy to let our joy and our satisfaction stem from what others give us.  But when they inevitably stop giving, we're left pining.  Yearning.

Thirsty.

For years, whenever I would begin to feel empty like this, my mother would always ask me if I had been in the Word lately.  No, of course I hadn't.

"Then fill your tank," she'd say.

I would often resist, at first.  Because I was too "busy" or what not.  But as soon as I recharged my life with His Word, I began to care less about what I could scrape up from others.  I don't need their water.

I have Living Water.  Water that never runs dry.

Are you thirsty?  Parched?  Waiting for a trickle of someone's happiness to spill into your life?

Don't settle for sips of the good stuff.  Fill your tank.  Dig deep into His Word and let His marvelous grace pour into your life.  Your glass won't just be full.

It'll downright overflow.