One morning a few months ago, I ordered breakfast on a fast-food restaurant app. I was running late so I thought ordering in advance would save me some time. Then I could just run in and grab my order from the pickup area and be on my way. But of course, on this particular morning, the online order screen was not working for the crew, and I had to wait a couple of minutes while they put my order together. Granted, it wasn’t a very long wait, but it was a delay I was not expecting, and I felt a little less congenial than I usually do. Nevertheless, I understood it was not the crew’s fault, so I waited patiently.
When I arrived at work, I carried my breakfast, laptop bag, and 20-lb. purse inside and set them on my desk, breathing a sigh of relief to have arrived at my destination.
A short time later, I realized my arm was sticky. Then I looked at my cup.
Look closely at the picture above, and you will see beads of colored moisture on the outside of the Styrofoam cup that held my iced coffee. Maybe some of you have noticed this before, but it was a first for me – not the fact that there was condensation on the cup, but the fact that it had color to it. I thought there might be a hole in the container, but this moisture was from top to bottom, all the way around the cup.
OK …
I wiped the cup off with a paper towel, but a few minutes later, the moisture was back.
Hmmm …
I thought this sticky dew might have resulted from a spill that occurred before I received the drink, so I used a wet wipe and cleaned the cup again. By this time, I had consumed about half of the drink, and a few minutes later, around the bottom half of the cup … (I think you’re tracking with me, right?)
I showed this conundrum to several of my coworkers, who were also perplexed.
Well, thanks to the miracle of the internet, I have since discovered that my cup was not unique. Several steps go into manufacturing Styrofoam, but the simplified version is that the process involves tiny beads, heat, and pressure. The more beads in the mold, the more compressed and leak-proof the finished product will be. Making a cheaper product by using less beads apparently leaves room for the product to be a bit porous – hence my sticky condensation.
This led me to consider the way humans tend to be “porous” when it comes to our emotions and reactions. When heat and pressure are applied to our lives, our character is molded, and if we have skimped on our materials, we have the propensity to seep out the emotions lurking beneath the surface – like when your order isn’t ready and waiting even though you placed it 15 minutes earlier.
Anger and frustration may seep out when your children are not behaving as you expect them to or when your spouse is not responding to you the way you might wish (which – for most women, anyway – means your husband is not reading your mind). Panic may escape through your carefully crafted façade when the economy takes a downturn or when your medical clinic calls you for a second look at a questionable scan. Anxiety and worry can leak through when life is not all you had expected.
But is that the kind of response Jesus calls us to? Is that the kind of life that exemplifies the Savior to a world that has no concept of “peace that passes all understanding”?
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:7-11).
I am not trying to promote a positive-thinking, “it’s all good” mentality. The truth is that life on Earth is not “all good” – Jesus never said it would be. And those who buy into such ideas are often completely overwhelmed and shipwrecked when life truly reflects the environment of our sin-sickened and depraved world.
Jesus experienced betrayal, temptation, frustration, pain, sorrow – every kind of stressor that seeks to overwhelm us as humans – and sometimes, Jesus expressed emotional responses to those situations. When He saw people using God’s house as nothing more than a place of commerce and unethical trade, He was so angry that He physically flipped over some tables (Matthew 21:12-13). He expressed frustration with the Jewish religious leaders, pronouncing “woes” on those who performed acts of outward piety without recognizing their own inward depravity, even calling them “a brood of vipers” (Matthew 23:13-33). And even more to the point, when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before His journey to the cross, He was so grieved that His sweat literally seeped out of his pores like blood (Luke 22:44)!
But in each of those situations, the Lord’s outward response was based on His great love and honor for His Father. His reactions were prompted by extreme circumstances, not just a knee-jerk reaction to irritation or even fear of the unknown. Actually, He knew what was ahead of Him, and He went to the cross for our sakes, knowing in advance the pain He would endure physically, emotionally, and even spiritually, as He would take on our sin and be separated from the Father for a few days – although it must have seemed like ages.
Something else Jesus knew was that life on Earth would not be easy for His followers. He said,
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Again, this is not intended as a call to put on a happy mask or pretend that life is not hard or painful or frustrating; it is a reminder that in Christ, we are overcomers!
All true Christ-followers have the same foundation: the solid rock of Jesus – the never-changing Word who was in the beginning, who is, and who is to return.
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:11-15).
When we face the inevitable times of pain and stress, we have a source of strength, hope, and joy on which we can stand. We do not have to be ruled by our emotions or overcome by anxiety.
We must always remember that when we are sorely pressed on all sides or when it feels like the hot breath of Satan is right on our necks, we can have unimaginable peace. We can show grace even to those who are merciless to us. Even in the face of great tribulation, the love of Christ can spill out of us as His Spirit overflows from a vessel crafted of the materials listed in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Then, even when extreme circumstances hit your life and your exterior starts to leak a little, you may find that what seeps out looks more like Jesus than the sticky mess you might concoct on your own.
