What’s in your Cup?

You anoint my head with oil, my cup runneth over” (Psalm 23:5).

Walking around at the fair, in the airport, or at any crowded venue can be a challenge with a beverage in hand. All it takes is one misstep, you get bumped, and $3 worth of café mocha is suddenly dessert for the ants.

You might well be watching where you’re going. All it takes is for Bubba to be smiling at his phone while blindly walking into you. Then what? Suddenly, everyone in the hallway can see from the spill, that what was in your cup was pumpkin spice latte.

When you get bumped, everyone sees what is in your cup. In life, it’s much the same. It’s easy enough to put on a smile, to be kind and pleasant when all is going well, and enjoy a pleasant fall morning with your favorite beverage in your cup.

But what spills out of your cup when you get bumped in life?

What spills out of your cup when things don’t go your way? What spills forth from your lips when the car won’t start, the demands placed upon you today are more than two people can accomplish, and you’re beginning to feel as if the only one who truly appreciates you … is the IRS on April 15?

It’s when you get bumped, that everyone sees what is in your cup.

Unfortunately, it is at those hard times when we sometimes display a very different personality than the one that we have on days of fun and sun at Tybee Island.

Sadly, and too often, we have an ugly second personality that comes out of the closet when things aren’t going so well. Unfortunately, it is at those times when your TRUE personality shines forth, and the REAL you is visible. It’s then that the world gets to see what is in your cup.

And how about Jesus Christ?

What spilled out of His cup, when his 12 best friends turned their back on Him? What spilled out of Jesus’ cup when His enemies falsely accused Him, and He was sentenced to capital punishment in a hasty after hours’ court session? What spilled forth from His cup at those times?

Interesting. Even under duress, we see the exact same Jesus hanging on the cross, as we do during better times. It is while dying on the cross that Jesus asks one of His disciples to care for His mother. From the cross He prays for His enemies saying, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Unlike many of our times in life, the Jesus that spills out of His cup under duress, is the same Jesus and the same God we always see throughout the pages of the Bible. Unlike us, Jesus doesn’t have a rainy day personality that comes out when life is difficult.

What is in Jesus’ cup is always the same. His concern is for the disease worse than COVID, in that sin is always 100% fatal. In Jesus’ cup is the message:

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). And note that His message comes with warning, “Narrow is the way, which leads to eternal life and few find it” (Matthew 7:14).

When we know that this Jesus is our Savior and Shepherd, our daily life can better reflect the words of Psalm 23:5: “You anoint my head with oil, my cup runneth over.”

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