Clean your tumblers

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I drink at least two cups of coffee a day.  I recognize that this may not be the healthiest of habits, but I thoroughly enjoy coffee and I find the caffeine helpful.  As an avid user of the Keurig, I brew different brands of coffee each morning.  The specific brand of coffee that I have been brewing lately is especially bitter for some reason.  It was given to me by someone else who did not want it.  I drink it nonetheless, though I probably will not purchase it in the future.

While traveling to different work sites today, I stopped to pick up another coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.  I really enjoy Dunkin's coffee.  I poured my Dunkin' Donuts coffee into my tumbler, which still had some coffee left over from the morning.  While I did my best to finish the morning's coffee before pouring the Dunkin' Donuts coffee into the cup, the flavors of the two coffees seemed to blend together into an interesting tasting coffee.  Because I love coffee, I drank this new blend without complaints.  Still, something was not quite right.  I really needed to clean my tumbler before adding new coffee to it.

I think humans are the same way.  The world and the enemy have poured bitter, secondhand coffee into the hearts and souls of people.  Our cups are filled with this burnt blend of hurt, anger, disappointment and fear.  We search for a new blend of love from others, for affirmation in academic and vocational success, for the next new item to purchase, the next project to distract us.  We pour this new activity, person or thing into a tainted tumbler in hopes of new experiences.  Yet when we take a sip, something does not taste right.  Somewhere in this cup of our hearts, a bad brew exists.  No matter how good the new flavors taste they will be spoiled by the bitterness of past tastes.  Our tumblers must be cleaned.

Jesus invites those of us who are weary to find rest at His feet (Matthew 11:28).  The Lord wants us to be healed (Psalm 30:2, Psalm 147:3, Jeremiah 33:6, Matthew 10:1) of our wounds, the diseases of our heart, the bitter tastes of sinful living, hurt and brokenness.  We can mask the hurts of our hearts with new flavors, but until we rend our hearts before the Lord and surrender to Him we will continue to wonder why our new experiences taste so funny.  God has prepared some beautiful things for us, things that we cannot imagine (1 Corinthians 2:9).  Expose the inner chambers of your heart to the grace of Jesus.  Ask Him to expose to you the bitterness.  Allow Him to cleanse you.  If you do these things, you will experience a flavorful life that you cannot begin to imagine.  True story.