Many people ask me about my cup. They ask why I don’t get a new one. Why do I continue to use this one? It is when I am asked these questions I respond that it is my Gospel cup. Your Gospel cup? Yes my Gospel cup.
The cup reminds me of God’s grace. Our lives are like this cup. None of us are perfect. Everyone has chips and cracks in our lives that God is working out in us. It may be something that God has brought us through when we thought there wasn’t any hope. It could be one of those times when we had fallen or were in need of Him to help us through a situation. There are many chips and cracks in our lives; relationships, self worth, health, loss, emotional, moral and/or spiritual. Chips and cracks might be a feeling abandonment by God or the feeling of being in a wilderness period of life searching for what God desires.
There are many examples in scripture that I can relate to this cup and to my life. One is the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). Jesus tells the parable about a father with two sons. The youngest son asked for his inheritance and went off and foolishly spent it. He led a life that was not pleasing to God, a life center about his desires and not God’s. When he realized what he had lost he came home not expecting to be anything other than a hired servant to his father since he had already received his inheritance. What happened was the father rejoiced at his son’s return and celebrated it. This is what God does with us when we repent and return to Him and worship Him. It begins a new journey in our life, a life that begins with forgiveness and grace through Jesus. It is life that is with Him and in Him in a new way.
The cup also reminds me that we are jars of clay that God uses [2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us,] and that we are being perfected and sanctified every day by Him (Phil 1:6) through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Yes the cup is cracked, yes the cup has a chip, yes it is imperfect yet it still holds a hot cup of coffee. It is still useful just as we who have chips and cracks in our lives are useful to God. Don’t let your chips and cracks stop you from serving God and reaching the lost or encouraging someone. Your story may be what they need to hear to bring them closer to God.
The Rev. Dave Newhart 