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PROGRAM D-7181
You know, it’s not difficult to look good when everything’s going okay. But it’s at those times when we have to endure some unfavorable circumstances or some unpleasant treatment that we find out what we’re like on the inside. I’d like to ask you: When your cup runs over, what spills out?
As long as you never move a cup, nothing will spill out of it. But as soon as you start to move it in some way, you’re likely to have what’s on the inside come spilling over the sides. The same is true of us: When we’re jostled and shoved, pushed and bumped, whatever is inside of us comes spilling over the edge. And then we learn things about ourselves we might never have known otherwise.
If we lined a number of cups up on a table in front of you, and asked you to tell us what was inside them from just looking at the outside of the cup, you could only guess. A china cup looks as though it should have tea inside. A larger cup might appear to be a soup cup. A smaller cup is often used for expresso. On down the row, we could all guess, from looking at the outside, what was inside that cup.
But as long as the cups sit very still, undisturbed, and we’re looking only at the outside from a distance, we can’t really know what’s inside of them. However, if I shake the table on which they’re sitting, or tip one of them over, you will immediately know what’s inside, because it will spill out. That lovely tea cup, all polished and clean on the outside, could have tea—or it could have muddy water. That nice soup cup might indeed have hot soup—or it could have old coffee grounds and dirt.
Well, what happens when you get bumped? How do you react when your table is tilted and you go toppling over? You may look really all-together on the outside, very polished and pretty. But how do you look when your insides show?
You know, it doesn’t take a major earthquake to cause a cup to spill its contents. Quite often the smallest little tremor can tip our cups dramatically. In fact, for me, it’s the little things that tip my cup most often. Seems like I can handle big situations better than I can the little irritations, the unkind word, the sarcastic remark, the unfair treatment. But whether the bumps are large or small, the unpleasant situations in our lives will reveal the ingredients inside of us.
When your cup runs over, what spills out?