Do you ever ask yourself, is the glass half full or half empty?
We have all come across people who are certain that the glass is half empty or that it is absolutely half full. It reminds me of the gold-blue dress that was floating around social media last year. The debate of the dress color spread like wildfire as everyone had to put in their two cents, and I don't believe that it got settled. It was gold, by the way. These two discussions have made minds rethink the meaning of life and I think the answer they developed was 42. Either way, regardless of how empty or full we think the cup is, when would we be able to tell when the cup is full?
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Let us switch the object of the story. Instead of a cup, how about a jar? Let's use observational science and say that it's an empty or a jar full of air. Is it full of air, or is it empty with nothing? A lot of times in our lives we come upon situations where we are faced with something that we cannot fully accomplish by ourselves. Shortly we will see that the same can be said for filling the jar. If I were to hand one the jar and rocks, as well as give one directions to fill the jar, they would do their best to fill it. I would then proceed to ask if the jar is full. To the best of one's knowledge yes would be the answer. This, however, is not accurate. The jar is full of rocks, but the jar is not full. Then they were present with a bucket full of smaller pebbles and given instructions to fill the jar with pebbles until no more pebbles would fit in the jar. After asking if it was full one would then again in our right mind say yes. But it is not yet full. At this point in the demonstration, an expected side affect is for us to get frustrated and even believe that it is a trick. It, however, is not a trick. It is simply perspective. So, Is it full yet? One would hesitantly answer yes but be wrong yet again. One is now given sand and told to fill the jar until it can hold no more sand. After the sand is poured the question still remains. Is it full yet? The answer still remains the same. No. This is the point where a fire of frustration starts in our minds and most people will walk away in rage throwing a fit like my little sister would do.
It is tempting to walk away from this jar that contains rocks, pebbles, and now sand convinced that it is empty and this jar either has a hole in the bottom or is made out of magic glass. It would be cruel but humorous to finish this article without telling you if the jar can be filled now. Although the first two options now seem plausible, the jar miraculously can and does get filled. Finally a pitcher of water is provided. One is told to fill the jar until it can hold no more. We are presented with the question one last time. Is it full yet? Yes it is.
This simple story of filling a jar with rocks, pebbles, sand and then water can serve as a lesson to us. At first we were convinced that the jar was completely full after we put rocks in it. We did the best we could do by ourselves within our boundaries. Nevertheless, we really needed someone to come show us that it can be filled even more. In our lives Jesus calls us to do our best in everything as if we are doing it for him. We can read this in Colossians 3:23. It says "whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men." As with filling the jar, we saw that all we can really do with our lives is do our best as for God. The astonishing part is that when we trust him with our lives and willingly surrender it to him then he can fill us up all the way. He will fill in the cracks and make our lives truly full. We examined in the analogy that by ourselves we cannot fill the jar, that we cannot live full lives. When we fill ourselves up there will always be emptiness present - however, we are all offered such a wonderful grace and it is this. He calls us to do our best knowing that we are not capable of accomplishing everything on our lonesome. Once we let him show us that life without him isn't full he personally comes and fills it up himself. We can know it is true by this promise. "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10 - Jesus
