Half Empty And Half Full

When we eat dinner on the deck, the meal is served buffet style on the kitchen island.
Dishes, utensils, napkins, and the various foods to eat are all there for everyone to take.
Get your plate and everything you need and go out on the deck to eat.
Often there are multiple trips back to the kitchen as some go back for seconds.

The other night, someone else poured milk for me.
Do you want a full glass?
No thank you. Just pour me half a glass, please.
Half a glass: half full or half empty?

Depends on your perspective.
Optimist or Pessimist.
Do you see the glass half full?
Do you see the glass half empty?

I would like to think that on any given day I would see the glass half full.
I would like to think that I am an optimist.
Though I have heard that the pessimist is the only, true realist.
That is a discussion for another time.

My youngest daughter graduates from high school this weekend.
It is the last of our family’s graduations.
It is a wistful time for me.
My youngest is ending something that has been part of her life for twelve years.

She is ready.
Am I?
Is the glass half full or half empty?

Isn’t that a question we all could be asking about many things in our life?
What is your perspective?

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

An eternal perspective is what is needed to see the glass properly.
To somehow glance at the emptiness of the glass with rejoicing.
Half empty because I drank some of the milk for my nourishment.
Half full because I still have more milk to drink.

Simul Iustus et Peccator.
At the same time righteous and a sinner.
The glass half full and half empty at the same time.

I am not above the sin that is common to man.
I am a sinner.
I need a Savior.
I need to be clothed in Christ’s Righteousness.

The sinner, before being justified, sees the glass half empty.
There is despair over things not done, or things done deliberately.
There is remorse and guilt.
There is emptiness.

After coming to Christ, trusting in Him alone for salvation, I am justified.
Just as if I never sinned.
All my sin, placed on Jesus on the cross.
All His righteousness placed on me through no work on my own.

Jesus’ work on my behalf.
Grace extended, though undeserved.
The sinner with the half empty glass now rejoicing because its fullness.
Fullness in Christ.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:17-23)

The fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.
Jesus, the One who fills.
When we look to Jesus, the glass is always full.
When we trust in Jesus alone, we are both righteous and a sinner saved by grace.

We are both things in Christ.
That is fine with me.
Half empty and half full with an eternal perspective.
An eternal perspective on the One who fills everything in every way.

Lord Jesus, give me eyes to see Your fullness is everything. Let me rejoice in the half empty, half full aspect of my life. Righteous and a sinner at the same time. Amen.