Pouring out is hard to do

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering  2 Timothy 4:6-8 

It is true that we should leave the judging to God, but starting with yourself, if you had to draw a line down the middle of this page and on the one side list your friends who our looking after themselves and on the other those who are pouring out “like a drink offering”... which list would be longer? On which side of the line would you be? 

The reality of busy lifestyles is the valid need to reinvest in ourselves, recharge our batteries, take some personal time. Living in busy urban settings where work creeps into personal space, where the freedoms and frustrations of being always on… we need some planned space in our spirits. I am for this. 

But when does self-care become self-absorption? When do we go from self-love to selfish? Will our generation have the selflessness to be a poured-out generation? Here is an irony: I have never before seen so many people talk so much about purpose while being so focused on themselves. “How do I get thinner? How can I be happier? How can I have more meaning? How can I walk out my purpose? How can I generate more income? How can I find a spouse? How can I change the spouse I have?”

poured out like a drink offering  

“Double tall non-fat no foam extra hot” is about as close to poured out as I get some days. We are not in an era where ‘poured out’ is the norm for the masses, even in the Church. We are so used to people pouring into us via special programs, services, products, and special offers. Our head has been twisted around where we are so expert at evaluating what is being poured into us that we have forgotten this is not the point. Jesus said, It is not what goes into a man, but what comes out. Paranoiac focus on inputs leads to paralysis of outputs. We call pickiness discernment, and self-absorption balance. When asked to serve we say, “I will pray about it,” and call this spirituality. “Pour me a drink while I ponder it…” Meanwhile the great apostle still says: 

I am already being poured out like a drink offering  

Application

• Are you teaming up with pourers or pamperers?
  
  
• Take the poured out challenge: determine to live for one month when every action is a pouring out to God in others. At the end of the month ask yourself whether you are better or worse off for being poured out.