Yesterday, I heard an analogy of a cup of coffee. It was remarkable!
A teacher asked his students “if you carried a cup of coffee and someone bumped into you, why did you spill the coffee?” The students all answered, ‘because someone bumped into me’. The teacher disagreed. “No, it was because you had coffee in your cup. If you carried water, it would have been water that spilled.” Then he said something profound. “Whenever life shakes you, whatever you are carrying will spill out. If you are carrying fear, jealously, anger, greed, that is what will spill out. If you are carrying love, compassion, kindness, empathy, that is what will spill out. So, each and every day, you should pause and think to yourself, what am I carrying in my cup?”
That teacher really was profound!
When life shakes us – how easy is it to point the finger at the thing or at the person who shook our world! But this story goes deeper than that. What we display amidst the shaking is a reflection of our inner world.
There is a verse that states “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” It’s the same idea.
Do you listen to what comes out of your mouth?
Several years ago, I noticed that my words were really violent. I’m not a violent person, so I was disturbed that these words sprung out of nowhere.
After some time reflecting, a memory of a family story came to mind. I prayed through that memory and dealt with the violence that man had carried. My language changed immediately. I didn’t try and change a habit; I just found that the generational story influencing my speech had lost its impact. Prayer is powerful!
This week, I was mistaken for a scammer. I tried to clarify some information to pay a bill but the man on the other end decided I was a scammer before he opened his mouth. I understood where he was coming from as scammers are prevalent but was still floored by the language he chose to use. I didn’t take offence because I could understand his process, but he probably wouldn’t be someone that I would spend a lot of time with. What flowed out of him in that moment of shaking was quite telling! Eventually we resolved the issue.
Do you observe what enters your heart? What do you feed yourself with? What sort of conversation is your norm?
When you surround yourself with negative people, you will probably become more negative. We do change and adapt to the situations around us. If you spend more time with positive people and occasionally with negative, you are more likely to be able to maintain a positive attitude. We can’t always escape the negative, but we can go in search of the positive.
What you watch on TV or the internet also shapes you. It shapes your humour, your attention span, your outlook.
We have a Marriage Matters segment on our radio show. I’ve heard Jax mention a few times lately that you only get out of a hope chest, or glory box what you have previously stored away. If your heart stores treasures, what are the treasures that you are storing up for yourself or for others – you only get out what you put in.
We each carry responsibility for our own heart. We are responsible for what we carry in our cup. What spills out of us in a time of shaking shows where our focus has been lately.
The good news is that we don’t like what is stored away, we can change what we put in.
The first step would naturally be to clear out what we don’t want to carry anymore. That might look like saying sorry where we carry guilt, forgiving where we carry offence, seeking clarity or giving the benefit of the doubt where we carry suspicion, being real where we carry fear, taking time to heal and restore where we carry shame, being honest where we carry lies.
Clearing out the old frees you. Decluttering the house impacts how you feel. Physical clutter can be a symptom of deeper clutter, although not always. Cleaning the house before your gatherings this year might be a good opportunity to do a spring clean of your heart attitudes and what you have tucked away there.
Don’t be intimidated, even getting rid of one or two things in your heart that no longer serve you is progress.
Once you’ve made some space, be intentional with your replacements. What you store now is what you can draw on later. What you store is what will flow out when you are squeezed.
Each of us store a unique set of thoughts, feelings and observations. Yesterday a bunch of us discussed our tea and coffee drinking habits. One guy, originally from England, said that he enjoys coffee in the morning, but he’s got to have a cup of tea first. I know people who will only drink their coffee a particular way, others who only drink herbal teas and still others who don’t like hot drinks. We each have preferences of what we drink from our cups, but the key is to be aware of what is in there.
I hope you found the analogy of spilling coffee as insightful as I did, may it shape what you choose to hold onto and store, today and into the future.
Once again it is Thanksgiving week and a good opportunity to pause and share some of what is in our cup with the people in our lives.
I thank God for the life he prepared for me. It has been an amazing year of special moments with family, opportunities for growth and teaching and writing and travel and meeting even more people that make my life abundant in every way. For every moment and every person, I am grateful.
Thanks to family and friends who encourage me in my endeavours, your encouragement means a lot. And to each reader, you give my writing purpose.
I want to thank Maree for the opportunity to co-host Faith Matters, along with Roger on Pastor’s Corner and Umberto and Jax on Marriage Matters. All four of you contribute meaningfully to my life and I value the time that I get to spend with you, both on the air waves and off. I am the richer for your wisdom.
Thanks too to Brad, Alli and the other authors that I connect with through The Company, I value your insights and patience with me as I navigate life and still progress my writing.
Pause and notice what you are carrying in your cup. What do you choose to drink from today?
