Monday, February 13, 2012

It's Always Tea Time


It’s an old illustration but the same hot water that will make you a cup of tea will also make an egg hard and a potato soft. The point is not the process but what you add to the pot. Boiling water is neutral. It’s just water. I choose the outcome by what I put into it.

Each result is definite. And each result is an absolute. Tea bags in hot water will make tea every time. Eggs in hot water will make hard boiled eggs. Potatoes in hot water will make mashed potatoes.

How does this information affect me? I’m going to get into hot water occasionally (okay, regularly). But the question is: what result do I hope for. Making my heart hard seems undesirable. Getting all mushy seems wrong. Expressing my life, the essence of who I really am, into the water would be more natural, don’t you think. I don’t have to worry, or try to force an outcome. I don’t have to fear what’s going on or try to control it. I simply let what’s in me come out.

Now that brings up a very important consideration—what’s in me? Maybe I don’t want others to see what’s in me. Maybe my outside doesn’t match what’s inside and I’m afraid for the inside to show. It could be I’ve worked very hard at creating an image I hope is believable. Well, that’s why I often choose the other two outcomes—hard or soft instead of natural. I don’t want my natural to show.

We spend so much time getting the outside to be presentable, we often forget that the inside is really who we are. Thus, the reason for hot water. Hot water isn’t to frustrate us, punish us or consternate us. Hot water is to reveal who we are.

Since I know hot water is coming, I think working on the inside of me is a prudent use of my time today. Tea anyone?

1 comment:

  1. It takes time but praise be to God he is faithful to sanctify us and sometimes show us our weaknesses that he is going to change. We just have to trust him through the change.

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