The stickers that define us

Things that stick with you

If you have ever met me in person, you have most likely seen me chugging water out of one of my many water bottles. These bottles carry different meanings to me because of the different places each one of them have been with me. I guess you could call it nostalgia, but I like to think that each one of them has character of it's own because of each of the scratches, dents and scuffs that they have. What really makes each one of my bottles unique though is that each one has a sticker or stickers from events or places that I have been with that bottle.

One of my favorite water bottles has stickers on it from when I traveled overseas to Scotland and Ireland. That bottle carries many memories of travel and the stories of three summers spent traveling around Michigan. The sticker from Scotland takes me back to walking the streets of Edinburgh, eating haggis for the first time and having my eyes opened to how much larger this world really is.  

The bottle pictured above is one of the bottles that I currently carry with me on a daily basis. I have had it for almost four years and have ten different stickers on it that are all unique. Each one has been worn down differently from being carried around in my backpack with other objects, but they are still stuck on there. They might get tattered, worn down, or maybe even unrecognizable to some people, but I will always know what they mean to me because I placed them on the bottle myself.

So you might be asking yourself by now, "Why in the world is he rambling on about stickers on a water bottle?"

The application

The bottle

When I look at each one of my water bottles at the end of the day, typically they are empty or close to empty. What do you do to an empty bottle though? You fill it back up. This, to me, is representative of what Psalm 23:5 says, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.". I want to overflow and fill others up. This is not always the case in our walk with Christ though. Sometimes we get selfish and just want to contain as much as God gives us for ourselves. We want to put the cap on ourselves and forget about others, but this is a double edged sword. When we close ourselves off from pouring into others, we close ourselves off from God filling us up at the same time. 

The stickers

You have probably never picked up a bottle of vinegar, read the label and then proceeded to drink it like a glass of water. If you have, well...i'm sorry you had to go through that. You see, no one just picks up a random container and starts to consume its contents without reading the labels on it. So I have a question for you, what kind of labels are you showing to those who interact with you? Caustic, poisonous or radioactive? How about loving, honest, compassionate and forgiving? Which cup would you rather be filled up from?

I will leave you with this, wrap yourself in light and fill yourself with truth so that those who drink of your words will shine.

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