Shortly after legendary college basketball coach John Wooden died, I posted one of his comments on my Twitter account: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation; your character is what you really are; reputation merely what others think you are.”
Then today I saw a quote from actress Sandra Bullock: “Whoever established the high road and how high it was going to be should be fired.”
The combination of these two ideas strikes me as a true test of who we are and how we represent ourselves as Christians when things don’t go as planned, when others treat us poorly or annoy us, when nobody is looking.
Then add the quotes above to the following, also a post on my Twitter account: “When someone ‘bumps’ you, what sloshes out? A glass can only spill what it contains.”
For me, these quotes all serve as reminders to be aware that we will be bumped, pushed, bruised and sometimes bloodied by living in this world with other people. How often are we aware of our response to these kinds of incidents?
If I want to reflect God’s grace and glory in my life, I need to pray that I will respond to the discomfort others cause me in a way that represents Christ, not myself or my selfish interests. Are you being bumped, pushed and jostled these days? What do you see sloshing out, and how does it reflect your true character?
Good word! I have often remembered the comment from a dear pastor who said, “When someone bumps your cup, what spills out?” He reflected that when we put a teabag in hot water, the water takes on so much of the flavor and color and character of the tea leaves, that we actually call the water, “tea”. When we take on the character and flavor of Christ so much that when we are put in hot water, difficulty, stress or disaster, i.e. when we are bumped, and He spills out, then we have become “Christians”, little Christs.
Blessings to you today in the midst of being bumped!
I like it, Tom. Thanks for sharing that quote!
Gregg
A dear old homiletics prof of mine was fond of a similar quote, “A cup brim full of sweet water will never spill a drop of bitter water no matter how severely it is jolted”.