An Empty Cup

“They are so thirsty,”  He said.  

With my eyes clenched shut, I was taken to a desert…Dust flying, sun scorching– an endless stretch of barren ground.  People were everywhere; they were digging with shovels and bare hands.  They were looking for water.

As I stood there watching this scene, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  I turned around to see Him.  He had a giant bucket in one hand, a ladle in the other, and a smile on his face.  I held a cup; it was dry as a bone.  I offered it to Him, and He filled it full of water.  He filled it so full, it started to spill out the top.  I drank every last drop.   It tasted so cool and sweet.  Never had anything satisfied more.

Suddenly, I saw Him fix His eyes on something behind me.  I turned to follow His gaze and saw a person on the ground.  She was on her knees, surrounded by mounds of earth, clawing at the ground.  She was dripping in sweat and coated in a thick layer of dust.

I knew what He wanted me to do.  I held up my emptied cup once again, and He filled it.  “I promise I won’t spill it,” I said.  I cautiously stepped my way over to her. I held out my cup; she hesitated at first, looking around at her piles of dirt.  She had been digging for a while.  She timidly took the cup in her cracked and bloodied hands.  She drank it dry.  Total satisfaction and joy spread across her face.

I ran back to Him.  She drank it! I held up my cup once again, and He filled it to the brim.  I found another digger, offered the water, and they drank it!  When I turned around, I saw others running to Him, holding out their own cups!  Swarms of us were dashing around with cups full of water, giving them to any that would drink.  Adrenaline was shooting through my veins, and water was spilling out everywhere!

I found another person on the ground.  With pure, child-like excitement, I offered them the cup of cool, sweet water. They took it, looked inside, and dumped it on the ground right in front of me.  My mouth gapped open.  They kept on digging.  “I’ll find my own water,” they said.  I couldn’t believe it. Why would they keep digging when I found the source of water?

I ran back to Him again, He filled it, and I ran back to them.  Again, they poured it out at my feet.  I looked down at my feet and saw the precious water forming sticky, black mud.

The Father gave me this vision several days ago, and it shifted something inside me.  All I have to offer Him is my emptiness.  I cannot love others, serve others, or speak life into others without His pour.  I can do nothing apart from Him.  He is Living Water that is guaranteed to satisfy.   I wish that all would receive His sweet gift, but many will reject it.  Those who take and drink, however, will never go thirsty again.  That is His Promise.  

Keep running back to Him with your empty cup, friends; let Him fill it to the brim.  Our world is so desperately thirsty. 

Loving Ugly

“Stare into the face of ugly sin and love the beating heart behind it.”

That’s what He said to me. In broad daylight.

“But Father,” I choked a laugh. “That’s impossible. You don’t seem to understand. This sin… It’s revolting. I don’t know if I can stand next to this person and not see it. It’s like a bad accident…you just can’t look away.”

He just looked at me. He didn’t blink.

“Okay, maybe that’s a bad analogy…” I stared down at my toes, because that’s all you can do when you stand before Him sometimes.

“Listen, it stinks, this sin. It’s the kind of stench that sticks to your nostrils. You know bonfires? How the smell clings to your sweatshirt for weeks on end? It’s like that. No matter how much I scrub, I can’t get rid of that rank, putrid smell.”

He breathed in, breathed out, and smiled, sadly.

“Look, it’s really uncomfortable for me, okay? Being around this sin is gross. I just can’t deal with it. I don’t want to. Can’t I just love them from a distance? Like, I’ll call and text them weekly. How’s that? I won’t ask them about the sin. I won’t even bring it up. I can do that, can’t I?”

Not a word.

“Okay, I can’t do it.” I threw my hands up.  “I can’t love them like you want me to.  How can I?  How can you expect me to love them when their sin is so heavy and disgusting?” 

A tear brimmed on the edge of His eye.

I knew I blew it.

He crouched down and grabbed my face. He didn’t say anything—He really didn’t have to. I felt the weight of conviction pressing down hard.

He looked deeply. He breathed in the stench of my prideful, arrogant breath. He closed in on my distant, avoidant heart. He stared into the ugliness of my sin and loved me anyways.

___________________________________________________________________

When the going gets tough, I get going. This is my greatest struggle. When vulnerable, aching people desire closeness with me, I want to turn away. I don’t want to look into the ugly sin and see the reality of it. I don’t want to fight alongside a broken friend. I want to run back to the safe surface, where no one will ask hard questions and no one will ask anything of me.

But that is not what He calls us to, friends. He calls us into the kind of unity that confuses the world. He calls us into a love that stretches our hearts wide open. He calls us into a bond that defies all earthly understanding.

This sort of love will force us to see and hear things that we don’t want to see or hear. It will beckon us to share things we never thought we could or should. It will call us to love deeper, wider, and higher, still.  And yes, it’s going to feel uncomfortable; it’s going to hurt; it’s going to stretch us beyond our limits.

Because He did it for us. He stared into the face of our ugliness and chose to crown us with royalty, adopt us into His family, and die that we may be with Him forever.

The Son said it best: “May the love that you have loved me be in them…” (John 17:26)

May the love he LAVISHED on us be in us.  May our broken brothers and sisters feel this love pouring out of us.  May it be done as He has said.