Overflow

This was the scene in my kitchen the other morning. I made a pot of coffee and went to the basement to switch the laundry. Not heavy multi-tasking, mind you. When I came up about 10 minutes later, this is what I found. A friend of mine on Facebook said it looked like a murder scene. Death by caffeine?

In my hurried state I had done everything to get the coffee ready (grind the beans, pour the water, turn on the pot)--except that I had forgotten to empty the coffee pot of the previous day's coffee. Result? Overflow. Serious overflow. Now I can sympathize a wee bit with BP.

The day before, in a discussion about preaching, a friend reminded me of the verse that says that out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34, Luke 6:45). I looked at those verses again and the context speaks of good trees producing good fruit and bad trees producing bad fruit. In other words, whatever we are filling up is what is going to come out as overflow.

This whole coffee spill caused me to stop and take stock of a few things:

1. My busy summer. How do I get to a point where I'm doing so much? This photo is the result of multi-tasking that is not working. One thing at a time, I remind myself. Be present in each moment.

2. What am I filling my heart with? In my preaching and in my everyday speech and actions, my "overflow" will come from my heart. So what I am filling my heart with? How can I be more attentive to Christ's love for us so that when I speak, it is out of the overflow of the abundance of Christ's love for us?

3. The power of God to speak in the everyday and the ordinary. I am quick to caution those who come to me wanting a "burning bush" experience or a clear answer from God. When I think of Moses in the wilderness or Isaiah in the Temple or Elijah on the mountaintop, I'm not sure we want to ask for those experiences. A much harder task is being attentive to how God is speaking all the time in the everyday.

I'd love to have you over for coffee, but most of it's on the floor.