Inspiration from a Coffee Pot

This morning, I was inspired by the office's communal coffee pot. It's not what you may think when you read that last sentence. This pot was empty and in desperate need of scrubbing.

Sometimes you can do a quick rinse before you start brewing the next pot of coffee. Over time, however, the transparent coffee stains get thicker and darker. If this is not addressed, it can be so bad that one can not see the coffee level inside the glass pot.

So this morning, I scrubbed it with good ol' fashioned elbow grease, rinsing it to see if I got all the stains. But then when I held it up to a white paper towel ... the stains were revealed in all their glory!

That's when inspiration struck. How often am I like that coffee pot?

There are stains on my soul that are not clearly visible day by day, but if left alone can become darker and more prominent. If I hold it up to other souls in this world, it doesn't seem so bad; for who can say if the stain are on my coffee pot or theirs? So I just rinse off and move on.

Yet...

If I held my soul up to Christ, there are my stains, dark against His glory -- a big ugly mess.

Often we hear, "Keep eyes upon God." Maybe one of the reasons to do so is that we begin to get a real good look of what is within us that needs a bit of scrubbing.

~ ESA