3-21-21 I’ve Got Cups

Quote: “When asked if my cup is half full or half empty, my only response is that I’m thankful I have a cup.”

We have all been around those people… you know what I’m talking about.  They can see the silver lining in any situation.  Positive Pollies.  They have a way of looking at a dire situation and automatically thinking or saying, “Well I guess it could be ten times worse…”  I usually walk away, shaking my head thinking, wow, I did not see that response coming!  They see the bright side in everything while most of us sit stunned, still trying to process what just happened.

Then we’ve got the other people.  The Negative Nancies.  Sometimes I just want to slap those people – I mean, gently tap their shoulder…  They see the woulda, coulda, shoulda in every new conflict or situation.  They are know-it-alls and know without a shadow of a doubt that the world is indeed ending.  Lord, help us all deal with the naturally negative people in our life!

But what an inspiring quote about the actual cup that this whole saying is about.  No matter how we look at what’s in front of us – shouldn’t we just be thankful that we even have a cup?

This reminds me of a very special cup that sits in my mom’s kitchen.  She went on her first mission trip to Guatemala a few years ago.  God really pulled and tugged on her heartstrings when she saw what poverty really looks like – no roof, no floor, no doors, no hospital, no police station, no garbage pickup – not much at all in this one village we visited.  She found this broken, chipped cup in the ditch by a bridge while she was there and God prompted her to pick it up and keep it as a remembrance of how broken people really are in other parts of the world.  She sees it in her windowsill everyday – such a special cup and God wink for her.  Little did she know that one summer later, she would need to focus hard on that cup in the window to try to see the positive, as she looks out at the missing lake from her backyard, the one that was depleted when the dams broke in our area.

Does it break my heart that I have all kinds of cups in my cupboards – plastic ones, matching sets, coffee cups from many adventures, glasses, all sorts – yet I never thank God for cups and plates and forks and spoons, such simple things to us, yet huge amenities to others?  That some families in this world right now share one cup.  That some have cups that scoop up dirty water to clean themselves with and then use the same cup to drink from.  Yes, it absolutely breaks my heart.

So what can we do then?  What if we look at every situation that is placed in front of us and simply say, “Thank you God.”

Thank you for the cups and kitchen table and couch and roof and driveway and lawn.  Thank you for running cars and cement roads and stop lights and schools and grocery stores and fire stations.  Thank you that my children are growing up in a world full of brilliant scientists who are doing their best to keep us all safe.  Thank you that I have running water to fill many cups.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.”  The writer, Paul, chose his words very carefully.  He is not saying sometimes, or when you feel like it, or when things are going your way.  He says in all circumstances.  Let verses like this fill your cup to the brim.  Be thankful for all things, no matter the package they come in.

I must make the daily choice to choose thankfulness over complaining.  And I will protect myself and my family by surrounding them with people who are more like the Positive Pollies than the Negative Nancies.

Jesus wants us to be different, to look at things differently.  He wants us to simply have an attitude of gratitude!