I wish I could take credit for the following, but a friend emailed this to me, and I just loved the wisdom in it, and felt like I should share it. The author is unknown.
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each others cups. Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.
Just what I needed.....another reminder that God uses cracked pots!
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3 comments:
I like the analogy of the story, but see the "hot chocolate" as the Spirit, the fulness of what God gives unto us, the reality of all that He is. We, in the Church, all too often focus on everything else BUT the basic truth of what the Gospel is all about....
AMEN! I agree, I also think we are so worried about being right that we miss all that God lays in our paths.
For whatever reason, hot chocolate has been showing up in my life of late. I did a blog about it, and then a friend sent me a powerpoint show with this story that is on your blog. I thought I might add the video to the post, but the YouTube I found had "King of the Road" background music, whereas the powerpoint show had "We've Only Just Begun," which I much preferred. I may not add anything and just leave it like it is at http://maedeans.blogspot.com/2008/11/g-report.html
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