And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. Mark 15:36
Another spill! It seems as each day passes, I am becoming more and more clumsy. This time though, as I reached for the first thing to halt the dripping mess, it was a sponge, but all I managed to do was create more of a mess!! Minutes before, I had used this sponge to wipe up remnants of potting soil that had gotten about, when I was replanting some of my spider plant babies! Preoccupied, I had forgotten! Now I had dirt mingled in with juice! What a muddle! As I did my best to wash all the dirt out of the sponge, my work had doubled, mostly because I had paid little attention to what I was doing.
It got me to thinking about how sponge-like we are, absorbing so much from our surroundings! God is freely, continuously giving us gifts to lift us up - wonderful, inspiring people and moments filling us with positive, good feelings and outcomes. But mingled with all this, is the messy part of life which can subtly soak into our spirit each day. Negative people with their thoughts and energy, personal disappointments, sorrow and pain, can blur the beauty and joy that God presents us with – the joy that He wants us to have! And if we’re not being attentive, before we know it, we are left feeling low, depleted and negative also, from those situations. Like a sponge, unless we wash out the dirt - that negative stuff - our lives and everyone we touch as well, can be smudged with it. And similar to the wine offered Jesus, as He was near death on the cross, the taste is bitter.
What can we do? The first step is to pay more attention to our spirit, and think about what is making us feel closer to God or separated from Him. When we become aware of the dragging of our spirit in certain situations or in the presence of particular individuals, God is giving us the gift of discernment. Take a step back and contemplate how to manage and stop that negativity from being absorbed. Although there will always be negativity around, before it becomes a mess, it needs to be kept in its place and not within us, so it does not insidiously affects everything we do. Our Lord gave His life, that we may have life! Through prayer and meditation, we will increase our awareness of what it is bringing our spirit down, robbing us of the joy that should be ours. That enlightenment will enable us to become more proactive - more readily able to make choices in faith, so we may live our lives peacefully doing God’s will, not the will of another. Our spirit, absorbed in God’s light, will confidently journey forward in joy.
Heavenly Father, increase our awareness of everything around us, in order that we may be able to do your will joyfully on this earth.
Copyright© 2015 Kathleen A. Matson