When we use the phrase, “I have a lot on my plate right now,” what we are really saying is that we are busy, we have a lot to do, a lot to complete. The plate represents our responsibilities, our daily demands. The plate represents our ‘doings.’ The cup, on the other hand, represents our ‘being.’ It’s not what we do, but it’s who we are. It’s how we are. The cup represents our spirit man, our container for Christ and for His life living inside us. When it comes to the busyness of life the plate often gets more priority than the cup. The more that gets added to our plates, the easier it is to neglect our cups. It is easy to live such that in such a way that our plates remain full but our cups remain empty. When our plates are full, we tend to neglect the importance of the cup, the centrality of the cup, the simplicity of the cup. Usually, the things that fill our daily ‘to do’ plate that tend to feel the most stressful to us are not the things we have chosen to have on our plate, but rather, those things thrust upon us: the sick child, the unsaved loved one, the financial worries, the medical diagnosis, the failing marriage, the wayward teenager, the strained relationship, the absent father, the absent husband… In regards to these more serious things, it is natural to fantasize: if only this problem was not on my plate… If only this circumstance was not on my plate… If only this person was not on my plate, then… I could handle life… I could not be stressed… I could find my joy again… Wisdom would indeed counsel us to remove the unnecessary items from our plate, especially during times of stress. But after we have done so, we must make an honest appraisal of what is left. We cannot always remove the items that are causing the greatest stress in our lives. Sometimes those items are the most important things we are called to do, and as people of integrity we cannot and should not try to remove them for our own comfort and ease. Helen Keller once said, “It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.”
Are we going to be people who pray that our responsibilities are minimized so that they can equal our limited strength. Or, are we willing to keep those tough items on our plate because we know they are important ones, and we reposition ourselves for the tasks at hand? Could our prayer change so that instead of asking for less responsibility, we instead ask that our strength be multiplied to meet the level of demands? Deuteronomy 33:25 reads, ‘As your days, so shall your strength be.’ We could rephrase it to say, ‘As your plate demands, so shall your strength be.’ My plate isn’t going anywhere. Part and parcel of living a life that matters means saying ‘yes’ to the hard things and trusting He will help me to do so. Jesus gave a vivid picture of the importance of having our cups ready to be filled when He met with the woman at the well in John 4. He said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (4:11). How can Jesus promise this? Because He is that Living Water! The woman at the well learned His lesson quickly. She ran back to her city to serve others by telling them all about this man at the well. Interestingly, she left without her waterpot. Perhaps because she herself became the container? Perhaps she became the cup to carry His refreshing Living Water to others? I intend to change where I keep my cup and my plate. I am not going to put my cup to the side and attend to it after my plate is cleared. Instead, I am going to put my cup smack dab in the middle of my plate. I am going to focus on filling my cup with His Living Water, letting it overflow onto every item that sits on my plate. I am going to pray no longer for a smaller plate, but instead, that He teach me how to no longer sacrifice my cup for the sake of my plate. I will pray that He teach me to keep filling and drinking and filling and drinking so that my strength is multiplied and that I am able to bring His refreshing waters to all that He has placed on my plate.
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