Filling Up

In 1977, the year I began driving (and the year the first Apple computer was introduced, Caleb), the average cost of a gallon of gas had risen twenty-one cents from an average of forty-four cents two years prior. This increase more than doubled the increase of the previous decade when the cost averaged slightly more than one cent increase each year. It may be that this is when I first began to hear my Mom request a dollar amount at the pump (since most locations did not have "self-service") instead of the formerly familiar "fill 'er up.". By contrast, a five pound bag of wild bird seed cost eighty-nine cents in 1977 and a ten pound bag now costs a little over four dollars now.

This comes to mind from observing that we seem to fill up our four feeders about every three days, sooner if our tormenting squirrels are successful. I don't mind the squirrels, really. They are fun to watch as they hang upside down on the feeders trying so hard to get sustenance; amazing to observe as they make their get-away from our puppies - eight year old Chloe and Indy (Black Lab mixes), and three year old Titus (Australian Cattle Dog mix). Before you say it, yes, we are sane. I was noticing we need to fill our feeders again. We so enjoy watching the Cardinals, Finches, Wrens and Woodpeckers come to feed. And what a perfect illustration for the disposition of our soul.

Everything here in this world needs filling from time to time: gas tanks, bird feeders, store shelves, our stomachs. Our soul also needs filling. We are born with an empty condition except for one thing: There is something which we can identify as wrong, not the way it is supposed to be. This thing may point us to the emptiness, might even help point to the solution. Or we create solutions in our environment, what we allow in, who we allow in, even how we think, believe and act.

We need God's filling. Every day. In the bad and the good. Why do we not get this? Jesus uses language describing this intimate union between him and the Father and us and him in John 17. We need filling up with God as the only source of life. He alone, as Peter said, has the words of (eternal) life. Before we can be filled with This life giving God, we must be emptied of all we hold onto. Everything to us, if we are to be faithful to God, is God and includes nothing else, most of all the big "I."

So I ask that you join me in praying first to be emptied of myself, to be filled with God so that I may live true to his will; secondly, that he be glorified through all that he has allowed and given to me and that our doctor's reports continue to show healing; and third, that others will turn from this life of being filled with themselves and this world to life filled by God. Please remember to pray for Elva, Joe, Pam, Debbie, Mark, Rick, Steve, Frank, Marie, Dan, Dennis, Olivia, Justin, Doris Anne, Jane, John, Tucker, Hugh, Robin, Leah, Aaron, Tom, Danny, Hooker, Mike, "Pig," Miriam, my co-workers nephew and all their families, Darrel and Claudia and their son and his family, Cynthia (another), Mark (a co-worker's brother), a co-worker's infant daughter, Mike and Tonya, my parents and my sisters and their families, Cynthia's mom and sister and her family.  Add to all these previously named, the mother, father and family of a dear friend who is now facing a battle of cancer recurrence. Please lift up Delores and the entire Kyle family.  Let's fill up so we can pray.