Sunday, 27 September 2009

• The use of crying over spilled milk.

  I was in a rush to get to church this morning, so much so that I nearly poured boiling water over my freshly ground beans without having installed the mug below the filter.  It would have been almost sacrilege...that aromatic, amber brew spreading out over my stove.

  Coffee for me is as near to Jesus as any inanimate object can be.  Certainly I don't worship it, but many times I have very appreciatively praised God for creating the coffee tree, and nothing unimportant aggravates me more than waste, spillage, or mistreatment of the drink.

  I averted the near mess, yet, with a shudder, envisioned one of my few luxuries spreading across the stovetop and seeping beneath the burners.  Then another thought struck me, not a mental image, but a spiritual one: How much of what God gives his children finds no vessel to pour into?

  Three times in the past week, I've heard or read this idea, that we've all the promises of goodness and blessing, of spiritual gifts and understanding, but that we have to receive them into our lives.  When reading Paul's letters, the history Luke recorded, the examples of men like Peter and Moses, one can see that these men received those gifts from God and utilized them in their ministry for God. 

  So what is it that makes me different from them?  Why am I not as productive and why am I so satisfied with being lazy?  And beyond myself: if all Christians were able to receive the gifts of God the way that a handful throughout history have...   Well, it's too easy to imagine how different this world would be.

  Christ was innocent of sin, and yet for our sake God made him one with the sinfulness of men, so that in him we might be made one with the goodness of God himself.  Sharing in God's work, we urge this appeal upon you: you have received the grace of God; do not let it go for nothing.  2 Corinthians 5:21 -6:1, NEB

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