Overflow

An ancient Indian proverb says this: "Whatever you are overflowing with will spill out when you're bumped." 

I realized just how true that saying is within the past few weeks... 

picture from google images

I found out that I would be spending some time with a person who has aggravated me in the past, and who tends to rub me the wrong way. 

To put it another way: I was bumped. 

I picture a tall glass filled with some sort of liquid. The glass is a dark color, dark enough that you cannot see through it to see what is inside. How do you find out what it's filled with? 

It gets bumped. It gets shaken. It gets disturbed.

Whatever it is filled with comes out, spilling over the sides. 

I think the same happens to us when we are bumped, when we are annoyed, when we are aggravated... Whatever we are filled with tends to start coming out. 

I think of Matthew 12:33-35 (NIV), which says, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him." 

The AMP version of verse 34 says this: "...For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks." 

Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. 

What is your heart full of? Because whatever it is filled with, that is what will come out when you're bumped. 

I realized how true that is over the past few weeks. Ouch. What a convicting realization. 

Because when I was bumped, it wasn't patience or kindness that spilled out. Instead, I spilled out impatience, and annoyance. 

Oh Father, forgive me. 

My prayer became that my heart would overflow with thanksgiving, love, and kindness... and that is still my prayer!! I know that the overflow of my heart should be God-honoring, and I know that I cannot change my heart on my own.. 

Father, mold me, shape me, and change me so that the overflow of my heart will be honoring to You. So that when I am bumped, love spills out. So that more than anything, I will be filled with You: Your Love and Your Light. 

I'm realizing and re-learning (again!) how important our hearts are, and how careful we need to be to guard them.

"Above all else, guard your heart, 
for everything you do flows from it." Proverbs 4:23

Out of the overflow of the heart... 

What does your heart overflow with? If you're not sure, just wait and see the next time you're "bumped" what comes out, and you might have your answer. 

I know I got mine, and what a convicting answer it was. 

Thank God for His forgiveness and His grace, and His willingness to help us, to shape us into His image-bearers, to not leave us where He found us. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ (Philippians 1:6). Praise God! 

So may the overflow of our hearts be filled with God's love and kindness, and with thanksgiving, so much so that THAT is what spills out the next time we are bumped.

That is my prayer. 

...led me here to this

"Thank God for all I missed, Cause it led me here to this." (Darius Rucker, This) 

This line has been running through my head this week, ever since hearing it on the radio while driving. 

Sometime I get so caught up in thinking and comparing and contrasting. I wonder why I've missed out on experiences that others have had, I wonder why my current life doesn't look a lot like my peers', I wonder why, I wonder why, and I wonder why... 

I keep asking God the "Why?" question, over and over again. One of my great friends is a mom to an awesome 3 year old boy, whose favorite question at the moment is "Why?" He wants to know the reason behind everything, and he asks the "why" question over and over again. I imagine that a lot of times when I am talking to God, I sound like my friend's son. 

"Why, God? Why is ____ (fill in the blank) happening? Or why isn't ______ (fill in the blank again) happening?" My why questions could go on and on. 

I know that God is in control, and that He is good, all the time. But sometimes I have a hard time putting that knowledge into practice, a hard time choosing to trust in God's timing and not in my own. 

And sometimes, God uses a country song to remind me how blessed I am, right here and right now. He uses a country song to remind me that although maybe I feel like I'm "missing out" on things, His timing and His plans are better. 

Whatever things I've missed in the past, whatever things I might be missing now in this stage of life, I can be confident that none of it is out of God's hands, and He will use it for His glory and my good (Romans 8:28). 

As I think through things that I'm "missing" now, I am grateful. Grateful because I trust in the God who knows me better than I know myself (Psalm 139), the God who knows my thoughts, knows my comings and my goings, and knows what is indeed best for me. I might not know the answers to my "why" questions, but I know that my Heavenly Father is caring for me. He hears every prayer, He sees every tear, and He knows what is best. He will lead and He will provide. 

I think about the things I am currently praying for, and the "why" questions I am wondering about, and I think about the things I've prayed about in the past, and another song comes to mind: "Unanswered Prayers" by Garth Brooks, specifically the chorus. 

The chorus says this: 

"Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers." 

picture from google images

Now, I have to clarify, I don't think that God leaves prayers unanswered. I believe He ALWAYS answers. But I do believe that many times His answers are a "No," and sometimes the no's feel like unanswered prayers. I think that is what the song above is referencing. I stumbled upon a quote that fits in with this: "I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered." -Jean Ingelow 

How different my life would look today if God said yes to all my prayers... and I don't think it would necessarily look different in a good way. So often my prayers can be selfish, and prayed out of my tiny perspective, instead of praying for God's better and bigger perspective. Praise God that He knows best! 

So as I sit here tonight, thinking about the "unanswered prayers" or the "no's," and about the things that I feel like maybe I'm missing, I am choosing to be grateful. 

Thank God for the things that I've missed, because He has led me here to this: a place in my life where only He could have brought me. A place with many joys, and yes, sorrows too, but He is good. And He is enough. 

Thank God for the "unanswered" prayers, because by His saying no He is leading me to something better, whether that is something now or later on down the road. He knows best, and His timing is better than mine. I trust in His guidance, and I trust that He is good. 

"You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16:11 AMP