By Caesar Kalinowski | Blog from caesarkalinowski.com 10 AUGUST 2015
While there are a zillion things I may still want in life, (okay, maybe just a few thousand) my life has certainly been filled with an abundance of blessings and awesomeness. While driving the other night, my wife, Tina, and I spent a little time discussing some of the things we have to be thankful for.
The things on our list may be similar to yours. Things like our relationship with God. How close we are relationally to our grown children and how much fun we’re having these days with all of them. Our home and community. If I went for the long list it would fill several pages and would include many more large blessings ie. health, friendships etc. and smaller things like my iPad, guitars and so on. But there would be a lot.
Some close friends of ours who live here in Tacoma as part of a missional community once took this to the next level. After a meal together one evening, they attempted to make a list of everything they collectively had been blessed with in their lives. Everything.
They took some of those large, sticky 3M note pages (they’re about 2′ x 3′) and the ten or twelve of them started writing down everything they had in life and considered a blessing. The exercise took over an hour, and when they were finished, large white pages were stuck on the walls all around the living room and dining room and hallway and up the stairs a little.
The blessings and resources listed were extensive and included lots of things like, skills and talents, dishes and bedding. Lawnmowers and tools, education and experiences. On and on and on. It was amazing. And they were amazed. But now they were also challenged.
Perhaps it can seem hard at times to feel like your life is filled with blessing. Hardships and disappointments rob us of that sense. And it can also be challenging to know how to live as a blessing to others.
A Conduit or a Barrel?
Let me give you some help here. A conduit is like a pipe. It is something that water, electricity, or any other supply is routed through to another place. A barrel is for storing up resources—for holding onto them for later use.
God is looking for conduits of his grace and generosity. He is not looking for barrels to store these things in. Coveting our things and acting as if we are our own source of income, supply, money, time, etc., shows that our hearts are not at peace and ultimately trusting God for these things. We hang on to our stuff because we believe it is in short supply.
Which do you most often represent, a conduit or a barrel?
Everything you have in life has been given to you to both enjoy and be a blessing to others. Go ahead and tip over that barrel!
You’ve been blessed to be a blessing.
The world is watching, our neighbors and co-workers are paying attention. The next best time to pour out more of God’s blessings into their lives and see if he doesn’t turn up the faucet of his grace in ours is now.
What are some of the things you have been given as a blessing to others?
♦
