My Mom has a mug. It’s grey with a loon and the word "WISCONSIN" across the front. Cute mug. It’s been sitting downstairs in the pantry for some time so my Mom decided to bring it up and use it. After all, why not use a good mug? While sitting over a cup of coffee, she realized that the coffee was leaking out of the cup. When you study the cup there is no perceptible crack, except for a very very fine line. Just studying the cup, the line would draw no attention, after all, many mugs have such lines on them without any leaking happening, and we can only assume that this is where the coffee is seeping out. None the less, the cup is good for nothing but an object lesson, as my Dad said.
And it is a rather good one. Many of us have heard similar analogies. But it bears repeating and can even be taken a step futher, I think. Recently I heard the story of a lady who is much like that mug. She seems to be a Christian. She looks good. She knows her Bible. But she leaks. Even worse, she doesn’t realize it. It makes me wonder, how many of us are leaking without realizing it? We may even study ourselves and seem to find everything alright.
That led me to another thought. There may be ‘cracks’ that we cannot see strictly by how we feel or look but rather by what comes out. Matthew 12:34 says "…For the mouth speaks of that which fills the heart." In Galatians 5:22, 23 it says "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…" If the Spirit is within us, no matter how mature we are spiritually, we will be growing in each of these areas. I was once challenged to take a list like this one and go through each one and ask, "How have I grown in this area in the last year? Have I grown in this area?" It may be quite interesting to ask questions like "When I am irritated, to respond more gently than I used to?", "When there are a lot of things going on, am I more likely to communicate peace rather than stress?", "Are the people I love increasingly aware that I love them?", and any number more. Food for thought (no pun intended).
the.happenings 