With open hands

For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. (Mark 9:41)

With open hands

Open your hands and lift the cup of your soul to receive.

The battle for your soul is won not by doing but by receiving the water of life that is the Presence of the Love who longs to fill you to overflowing.

We come into the world, creatures of the Love who is the Source of all things, that we might be a little epiphany, expressions of Love’s joy in time and space. We become who we truly are not by competing, winning, being stronger, better, smarter, richer or more successful than others … but by receiving.

Receiving love; that is. We receive the Love who made us in every act of reception, every time we hold up the cup of our soul in recognition that we need to be filled with the water of Love’s gracious presence.

It is paradoxical, but true, that winning is often losing. Being successful or stronger, seeming to ‘have it all together’ is invitation to the illusion that you can live and give, pour yourself out, be the one who is strong and calm, dependable and responsible … without your cup running dry.

Do this long enough … and you lose your soul. For your soul is the Love of the One who made you.

We each need to return to our Source with open hands and a humble heart, lifting high our cup and saying, “Lord fill me again. Only then will I have the living water to bless another … who is as thirsty as I.”

And we need to be open to those the Holy One sends, eager and humble to receive even from those you did not expect to come bearing water of life to your parched heart.

Blessed are those who feel their emptiness. They shall be filled. Blessed are those who share the waters of life. They will know the joy of the Lord.

Pr. David L. Miller