If Anger was Coffee…

So today I was talking to a wise woman about anger. Specifically my anger. She asked me if she had told me about the story about the cup and when I admitted that she hadn’t, she smiled. She picked up her cup of Starbucks and held it in her hand and asked me:

“If I took the lid off this cup, held it in one hand and hit it as hard as I could with the other hand, what would happen?”

“Well,” I said, “It would spill out.”
“What would spill out?” She prompted.
“The coffee…” I said, more confused than when this conversation began.

She smiled a bit more. “Yes! And if I went to the kitchen and emptied the cup and filled it with water and came back, held it in one hand and hit it as hard as I could with the other, what would happen?”

Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, I got it “Water would spill out!”

In that moment a very vivid picture sprang to mind of me being a cup, full up to the top with coffee (in my mind a dirty combination of sin mixed with good intentions – sort of a liquid version of filthy rags if you will). When I get hit obviously something is bound to come out of me – it’s only natural. Now the person doing the hitting might be the ‘cause’ of the splash, but they don’t determine what that splash is made of – I do. See, whatever is inside of me is what comes out. I can either be full of coffee or I can be full something else - like water, that doesn’t leave a huge stain when it ends up all over the floor.

It wasn’t until later when I was mulling this over that I something occurred to me. I was thinking about wanting to be a cup full of water – how appealing that thought was, when suddenly it dawned on me that I am full of water - Living Water.

John 7:37-38

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’”

As a believer of Christ I have the ability to allow living water flow out of my heart. I have the ability to be a water glass and not a coffee cup. In fact, wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could be a water pitcher and let that beautiful living water just spill everywhere I go? But, let’s face it – instead of being a pitcher or even a water glass, I’m a coffee cup – some days I rinse myself out and try to be a water glass. Other days, I get knocked over and realize I didn’t rinse as well as I thought because when I look down there’s coffee all over the floor again.

Still, because of Christ, I know that I have the power to decide if that coffee spilling out is going to be a lot or if I’m going to grab my cup and put a God size lid on it before I make a big ole mess. It’s definitely something to work on, and towards. Just the thought of tackling such a big job has left me thirsty. Better go grab some water.