Help-full...Full of the Spirit
Do me a favor before you read this. Take an empty cup or a glass to the sink. Put it under the faucet. Turn the water on going pretty fast and let it fill up. Now...don't let it stop...watch it carefully as it spills over the sides. Now turn it off. Observe what happens.
We just got our eldest back from a trip visiting his biological dad Brian and Brian's parents. They're all very down-to-earth (his dad has farmed, so when I say down-to-earth I mean it.) His parents live in a frame house like the one I lived in when I was a preacher's kid in Lawn, Texas. Theirs has the same kind of back porch that I made my bedroom. It feels very much like home to me when we visit.
Being a step-dad, even when you were "gifted" with the child when he or she was a baby, is a nervous blessing at times. I am always concerned about intruding or invading on others lives. You can't be a step-dad without constant intrusions. They're part of life.
Brian and his folks treat me like I'm the real thing to our eldest. It is an ENORMOUS honor to be recognized as the legitimate, daily father-figure by a man who only has one son and by grandparents that only have one grandchild. They are scrupulous in every detail in maintaining that recognition and in befriending me.
Before they did that, Jennifer and I determined that we would do everything in our power to build a closeness that prevented hard feelings with them. I can't tell you it's always been perfect, but we recognize God's blessing for doing what is right, and just, and merciful.
They dote on our eldest when they have him. I can't imagine what it would be like to see my only son a couple of times a year. I would YEARN for him to come back to me when he was away. And when he came to me, I would want to fill my time by being with him and enjoying him. So I empathize with Brian and when he asks for Nathaniel, I encourage us (Jennifer and myself) to share him willingly.
There is a very interesting spiritual analog here, by the way, but it isn't my main point. Have you ever wondered how God the Father and God the Spirit felt when Jesus with us as a man? I wonder if it is like your only son living with another family like our eldest does with me? The words of the Bible--especially the Psalms and the Old Testament prophecies--suggest to me a deep yearning for the one that was to be sacrificed. I am not saying that I can empathize with God over this, but if it is anything like the human relationship between Brian and our eldest, maybe I have a gleam of understanding.
The main point is that when our eldest comes home, he goes from a place where he has a lot of freedom and gets a lot of attention back into a household with three other children. And our rules. And our expectations. Where his grandmother and his biological father might offer him--out of the simple joy of having him--a little more freedom, he has to return to a little more responsibility and the expectation that he will get along.
He was grousing over being asked by Jen to help. And I was getting a little exasperated with him. I commented that his mom OFTEN helped him without being asked (food, clothes, laundry, and being chauffered), and I wondered out loud if he couldn't be more helpful. Then it struck me that perhaps I should try to come up with a picture of what I meant.
I very simply picked up one of our clear glass tumblers, said, "Look, this glass is now "help-empty" and turned on the water. As it reached the top and started spilling over, I said, "Now this glass is help-full." Our six-year-old daughter and our three-year-old were both drinking this illustration up, by the way.
Then I turned off the water and something magical happened!! The glass was no longer full!! It was ALMOST full, but not quite. While the glass was being filled and was overflowing...it actually was full and overflowing. When the stream of water stopped, the last bit of water that was overflowing BEFORE it stopped left because of inertia, and the glass was left not quite full.
I repeated the experiment SEVERAL times to make sure. In fact, the ONLY way I could keep the glass full was to turn down the stream to a trickle. The more slowly I filled the glass, the fuller it would be when the water was turned off.
We talk about being "helpful" (or in this case "help-full.") Christians also talk about being "full of the Spirit." There are lots of word pictures in the New Testament of Christians being containers. And there is a lot of talk of being filled with the Spirit. In my mind, the analogy of God filling me with his Spirit being like me filling a glass with water is actually an apt one. I can be filled slowly. I can be filled quickly. Or I can 'quench' the Spirit and, pretty much, not be filled at all.
But the especially important part is this: the more God pours into me, the more I should overflow. And if I overflow with what he is pouring into me, I should be overflowing with HIS Spirit...with HIS character...with the likeness of Christ Jesus. The more rapidly I am filled, the more obvious it is to others that it isn't ME filling ME...but it's otherworldly...supernatural. When I quench God's Spirit, the flow slows to a trickle, and the overflow slows to a trickle.
Now I may be reaching on the analogy here, but what do people see when I'm not being filled? They might see a clear glass. They might even see clear water in that glass FOR A WHILE. But I am not going to be completed and perfected until I am given my resurrected body in heaven. So as sin creeps in...the water gets muddy. The only way anything pours out is if I force it out. And who really wants muddy water poured on them?
Only when I come to the Fountain of Living Water to be filled will the spiritual water of my life pour out refreshing and cleansing for others. And only when it is constantly being filled is it constantly FULL and overflowing. Perhaps I'm reaching and this is just an overwrought analogy...or maybe it is Truth??
My proof text:
Well..ok...maybe I'm more like a clay jar than a clear glass!!
We just got our eldest back from a trip visiting his biological dad Brian and Brian's parents. They're all very down-to-earth (his dad has farmed, so when I say down-to-earth I mean it.) His parents live in a frame house like the one I lived in when I was a preacher's kid in Lawn, Texas. Theirs has the same kind of back porch that I made my bedroom. It feels very much like home to me when we visit.
Being a step-dad, even when you were "gifted" with the child when he or she was a baby, is a nervous blessing at times. I am always concerned about intruding or invading on others lives. You can't be a step-dad without constant intrusions. They're part of life.
Brian and his folks treat me like I'm the real thing to our eldest. It is an ENORMOUS honor to be recognized as the legitimate, daily father-figure by a man who only has one son and by grandparents that only have one grandchild. They are scrupulous in every detail in maintaining that recognition and in befriending me.
Before they did that, Jennifer and I determined that we would do everything in our power to build a closeness that prevented hard feelings with them. I can't tell you it's always been perfect, but we recognize God's blessing for doing what is right, and just, and merciful.
They dote on our eldest when they have him. I can't imagine what it would be like to see my only son a couple of times a year. I would YEARN for him to come back to me when he was away. And when he came to me, I would want to fill my time by being with him and enjoying him. So I empathize with Brian and when he asks for Nathaniel, I encourage us (Jennifer and myself) to share him willingly.
There is a very interesting spiritual analog here, by the way, but it isn't my main point. Have you ever wondered how God the Father and God the Spirit felt when Jesus with us as a man? I wonder if it is like your only son living with another family like our eldest does with me? The words of the Bible--especially the Psalms and the Old Testament prophecies--suggest to me a deep yearning for the one that was to be sacrificed. I am not saying that I can empathize with God over this, but if it is anything like the human relationship between Brian and our eldest, maybe I have a gleam of understanding.
The main point is that when our eldest comes home, he goes from a place where he has a lot of freedom and gets a lot of attention back into a household with three other children. And our rules. And our expectations. Where his grandmother and his biological father might offer him--out of the simple joy of having him--a little more freedom, he has to return to a little more responsibility and the expectation that he will get along.
He was grousing over being asked by Jen to help. And I was getting a little exasperated with him. I commented that his mom OFTEN helped him without being asked (food, clothes, laundry, and being chauffered), and I wondered out loud if he couldn't be more helpful. Then it struck me that perhaps I should try to come up with a picture of what I meant.
I very simply picked up one of our clear glass tumblers, said, "Look, this glass is now "help-empty" and turned on the water. As it reached the top and started spilling over, I said, "Now this glass is help-full." Our six-year-old daughter and our three-year-old were both drinking this illustration up, by the way.
Then I turned off the water and something magical happened!! The glass was no longer full!! It was ALMOST full, but not quite. While the glass was being filled and was overflowing...it actually was full and overflowing. When the stream of water stopped, the last bit of water that was overflowing BEFORE it stopped left because of inertia, and the glass was left not quite full.
I repeated the experiment SEVERAL times to make sure. In fact, the ONLY way I could keep the glass full was to turn down the stream to a trickle. The more slowly I filled the glass, the fuller it would be when the water was turned off.
We talk about being "helpful" (or in this case "help-full.") Christians also talk about being "full of the Spirit." There are lots of word pictures in the New Testament of Christians being containers. And there is a lot of talk of being filled with the Spirit. In my mind, the analogy of God filling me with his Spirit being like me filling a glass with water is actually an apt one. I can be filled slowly. I can be filled quickly. Or I can 'quench' the Spirit and, pretty much, not be filled at all.
But the especially important part is this: the more God pours into me, the more I should overflow. And if I overflow with what he is pouring into me, I should be overflowing with HIS Spirit...with HIS character...with the likeness of Christ Jesus. The more rapidly I am filled, the more obvious it is to others that it isn't ME filling ME...but it's otherworldly...supernatural. When I quench God's Spirit, the flow slows to a trickle, and the overflow slows to a trickle.
Now I may be reaching on the analogy here, but what do people see when I'm not being filled? They might see a clear glass. They might even see clear water in that glass FOR A WHILE. But I am not going to be completed and perfected until I am given my resurrected body in heaven. So as sin creeps in...the water gets muddy. The only way anything pours out is if I force it out. And who really wants muddy water poured on them?
Only when I come to the Fountain of Living Water to be filled will the spiritual water of my life pour out refreshing and cleansing for others. And only when it is constantly being filled is it constantly FULL and overflowing. Perhaps I'm reaching and this is just an overwrought analogy...or maybe it is Truth??
My proof text:
2 Corinthians 4:7 NIVBut we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.13It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken."With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Well..ok...maybe I'm more like a clay jar than a clear glass!!
posted by greg.w.h@11:12 AM link-to-post
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