A Glass of Lemonade
Recently on our street, a few of the neighborhood kids had set up a lemonade stand, seeking to sell (what tastes like store brought!) lemonade to those who walk or drive by. These kids are very aggressive salesmen! They started flagging cars down when they were about 150 yards away, blocking the road so that you couldn't get by. This first happened to me last week. I was flagged down as I was leaving, and I said that I didn't have a penny on me and that I would buy some later - hoping that by the time I returned, the kids would have forgotten. As I returned 2 hours later, these kids hadn't forgotten who I was! I made some excuse and drove home as I didn't want any lemonade. As I returned home the Monday after the weekend, these kids – with incredibly good memories – flagged me down again.
This time I had no choice. After discovering that the lemonade cost 20cents and that these kids didn't take credit cards, I fumbled in my wallet and found $5 - the smallest currency I had. I generously told them to keep the change out of admiration for their entrepreneurial skill. 2 minutes later, a little six-year-old comes back with a glass half full of lemonade. Our eyes locked for a moment as we both realized that my $5 was only buying me half a cup. She responded that the glass was only half full because she 'didn't want to waste the lemonade"! To which my thought (and not my response!) was, "You are not wasting it if you give it to me" As I drove home (wanting to teach my kids a lesson in quick generosity), this interchange struck me as a sad metaphor for the life of many people.
Jesus, our commander, pays the price so expensive that it cost him his life, yet we take this life and do all we can to protect it, to make it something solely needed to survive, rather than thrive, living life' half full' because we don't want to waste it. I can almost see God sitting there in heaven saying, "You won't waste your life if you give it to me." Jesus said this, "I have come that you can have a FULL life" (John 10:10). "I have paid the ultimate price that you can you live fully, "… yet why don't we?
Friend, drink from a full glass!
This time I had no choice. After discovering that the lemonade cost 20cents and that these kids didn't take credit cards, I fumbled in my wallet and found $5 - the smallest currency I had. I generously told them to keep the change out of admiration for their entrepreneurial skill. 2 minutes later, a little six-year-old comes back with a glass half full of lemonade. Our eyes locked for a moment as we both realized that my $5 was only buying me half a cup. She responded that the glass was only half full because she 'didn't want to waste the lemonade"! To which my thought (and not my response!) was, "You are not wasting it if you give it to me" As I drove home (wanting to teach my kids a lesson in quick generosity), this interchange struck me as a sad metaphor for the life of many people.
Jesus, our commander, pays the price so expensive that it cost him his life, yet we take this life and do all we can to protect it, to make it something solely needed to survive, rather than thrive, living life' half full' because we don't want to waste it. I can almost see God sitting there in heaven saying, "You won't waste your life if you give it to me." Jesus said this, "I have come that you can have a FULL life" (John 10:10). "I have paid the ultimate price that you can you live fully, "… yet why don't we?
Friend, drink from a full glass!
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Amen