In the midst of earth shattering, uncontrollable circumstances in my life I have learned what a huge role my attitude and perspective can play. If you were to ask me whether its better for the glass to be half full or half empty I would say both. What I mean is that in order to cling tight to the hope of the unknown we have to have some level of positive thinking and drive to push forward in the midst of the adversity. At the same time though there needs to be a level of emptiness within us to allow Christ to take that space and fill it up with Him, there needs to be an attitude of half empty so we can give up our dependency on ourselves and instead allow Him to fill us up. Basically if we are talking about our attitudes we should see the glass as half full, if we are talking about surrender we should seek emptiness so that we can be broken, poured out and filled up with Christ.
They say opposites attract and this is definitely one area where my husband and I fit the theory of opposite thinking. When it comes to our perspective on life and our circumstances my husband Scott is more the realistic/rational one and I am more the optimistic think positive one. Don't get me wrong my husband seeks to trust in a positive outcome in all situations but because he is a science major he also looks at the facts. Me on the other hand see's things a little more shiny and believes there will always be a positive, happy outcome. My glass appears half full and his half empty most of the time which can be helpful because we level each other out. There are often times I wish he saw the more flowery side of things but then I wish I could see the rational a little more too.
Throughout some difficult times in my life especially the past few years I have no doubt that seeing the glass as half full has helped push me towards Christ and the hope that He has. There have been many pieces of my life that if I were to sit back and focus on them I could get caught up in the sadness of whats been lost which is exactly what Satan would like. If we look at our circumstances through the lens of a half empty glass then we focus on whats been lost instead of whats been gained and then our eyes are taken off Christ. You can't create space out of nothing, you can't fill in the gaps unless you have emptiness to work with. What I mean is that in order to be filled up with Christ we have to be emptied out of ourselves. In order to be filled up and selfless we have to be poured out of selfishness.
Ephesians 3:14-21 "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
I heard a Pastor say this over the weekend and because I love fountain pop it really made sense When I pull up to a food drive through I can hardly stand the excitement within me for a nice cold coke. I love cold pop but there is a slight conflict with the pop/ice ratio. "If you go to get a 44 oz fountain pop you want the most pop possible right? But if you get your cup and its filled with 40 oz of ice then there is only 4 oz of space left for that cold refreshing coke. However if you only walk away with 4 oz of ice then you have space for 40 oz of coke. Regardless of how good the ice can be in your coke if your filling up your glass with too much ice then you are missing out on a larger portion of that refreshing coke. The same is true with our lives, in order to be filled to the top with the refreshing spirit of Christ we have to empty out ourselves so He has space to be poured into the space of our hearts.
When you look at your life each day do you see your cup as half empty and focus on the things that you don't have or do you strive to see it as half full and rejoice for the things you do. Do you rejoice in the emptiness because it means surrender and available space for Christ to invade your life?
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