We stopped at a Dollar Store this afternoon. I was very impressed. People with limited incomes could eat fairly well by shopping there. There was a nice array of shelved and frozen foods. My problem was I bought things I didn’t really need because the price was so good. I couldn’t resist. There are two ways of looking at our visit. I could tell you how much money I saved on the purchases. Or I could tell you about how much money I wasted because I didn’t need what I bought.
This was one of those glass half-empty or half-full situations depending on one’s perspective. I thought about applying the glass half-empty half-full metaphor to our accepting Jesus as our personal Savior. However, the more I thought about it the more I couldn’t do it. From every perspective I saw the glass full. I couldn’t think of a half-empty perspective other than one. Sometimes when one accepts Jesus the other members of one’s family rejects them or shuns them. Actually in some situations in the Middle East one’s family actually kills them for accepting Jesus. That certainly counts as the glass half empty.
Jesus did call for us to take up our cross and follow Him. Matthew 16:24. I can speak of this for others. I cannot for myself. If heaven’s rewards were in proportion to one’s suffering for Christ on this earth my mansion should be a slum for my glass has always been full. If that would be the case (I don’t think it is.) I will not complain. Do you remember the text about being a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord? Well, I would rather live in heaven’s “slums” than in the palaces of the wicked.
Written by Roger Bothwell on January 7, 2016
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, Ca 94574
Rogerbothwell.org