Last night I was walking home from work. I’ve been having a stressful couple of
weeks and as I took each step was deep in thought (shocker.) I looked up just in time to watch as a
homeless man ahead of me dumped his coffee all over the sidewalk. His head shot back in exasperation…and
then hung low as he took a deep breath.
He dropped his large backpack and other items in his hands….picked up
the empty cup of coffee and began to gather his belongings once more. I ran straight in to the grocery store
on the corner and asked the man at the counter for a cup of coffee. As the man behind the counter moved at
actual snails pace…my exasperation grew…”Come on, dude…I just want to catch
this man so I can give him a new cup of joe for gosh sakes.” As the barista slowly capped the cup
and handed me my change…I rushed out to see if the man was still there. Gone. I walked around a bit to see if I could find him…but alas,
there I stood with a hot cup of coffee for…myself.
As I went through the rest of my evening I kept seeing that
cup of coffee falling to the ground, his hands full of other things. The exasperation he felt was so
real. End of his rope. What else happened to him that
day…week…month…year…one more thing.
We feel that a lot don’t we? That we’re carrying too much…that the one thing we need
slips right through our hands.
Makes me think of a video from the Nooma series the youth
pastor Rob Bell put together entitled, Shells. At the end he describes a trip his family took to the
beach. His boys were running along
the shore collecting pieces of shells.
After awhile they caught sight of a huge starfish off in the
distance. Rob Bell’s son went
running for it…and became anxious and agitated and when Rob said to son,
“What’s the problem? Go get it…it’s right there for you!” He responded, “I can’t, my hands are
filled with shells!” Fragments of
a whole filled his hands and it never occurred to him to drop some to grab the
huge beauty in front of him.
Rob Bell talks about how much of a parallel this draws to
our lives. How often am I holding
fragments of a whole in my hand…unable to discern what I should relinquish in
order to grab hold of the thing Jesus waves right in front of me. Some of the fragments are beautiful…but
what have I said yes to, leaving me saying no to something else?
You see…I don’t want to drop my coffee on the sidewalk. I want my hands to be open and free for
the big prize. So…as Jesus did in
Mark I’ll go away and pray for awhile…ask God to free up my mind of
all the little things that may be wonderful, but leave me unable to say yes to
what he wants of me.
Perhaps then I wont be so stressed out J
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