I once heard someone say that "marriage is the container for sex and that if you took it out it will be like not putting water in a container." It's exactly what the pictures below demonstrate, when you have water in a bottle it's useful and in our world nowadays it's aesthetically pleasing but if you do not restrain it, it becomes a problem called a flood, a leak, or a puddle. Though I would love and sit here and discuss whether our sex is in a
container, that is not what we'll be talking about. Today I want to discuss "What Is Your Container". This question came to me after I read Genesis 18 and I was praying for God to help me fully rely on Him. A thought came to me and it asked "Helene, what is your container?"
When I think of that question, the next question that comes to mind is "What is holding me up?". The thing about a container is that it gives shape and structure to the liquid inside and frankly it makes the liquid more useful and manageable. Google defines a container as "an object that can be used to hold or transport something." Growing up, we learn that we are the vessel and God dwells in us but what if we looked at it the other way around. God is the vessel and we dwell in Him. That is just a simple thought, I'm not saying that's how it should be but it sounds reasonable and to be honest I like it a lot more than me being the vessel. If I am the vessel I feel the pressure of the substance in me, I have to bear the weight of the substance and
frankly, I have to be durable for it. You cannot take multiple tissues, pour water into it and assume the water will stay in. Most of the time that is how I feel. I feel like I have to carry God with me wherever I go because I'm the vessel and I know for sure I cannot hold God in my frail hands. So for now let us see God as the vessel and we are the substance
A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my brother and he was telling me that as Christians we should not have an identity and we should be as a ghost allowing the problems of life to come through us and go straight to God. Once we see ourselves as such we will not feel the weight of the world on our back as much. Let us be honest sister, that is not always the case. We get our self into situations where we are literally carrying everything on our back and barely have the strength to call out to God. I bet there are some people reading this thinking "pfft, I am fully reliant on God" and it's totally reasonable to feel that overall you are reliant on Him. There is always an aspect in our life where God always reveals to us to let go of, to go in a bit deeper with Him because we are not perfect, so nice try! Our life is built up with compartments, it is a lot similar to the brains of our male partners its just that these compartments spillover into the other. We have our academic, career, relational compartment, family, finances, and identity. When we gave over our academics, we did not give up our family as well so when I say we are not fully reliant on God I want us to think about each aspect of our life.
What is your container? Once you pinpoint at least one section of your life that is not fully surrendered to God, I want you to think of what is it relying on? I'm going to share a personal example, I had a breakdown today because it was dawning slowly each day that my relationship with other people in my life was not great. This morning I just broke because that realization was affecting different areas of my life and I just had enough. I was sitting in the living room crying, being my own psychologist and being the client at the same time, so hilarious. What I am coming to realize is I do well when I do well with others. If I don't disappoint anyone this week, well I had a great week but the moment the arguments, the attitude, the silence and the disappointments start coming I start questioning everything about myself. My container is the perspective the people in my life have of me.
Just like I mentioned before tissue cannot hold water and even if it did absorb the water, the water is not useful anymore. What I'm trying to get to is most of the time we try to live life with other people or material things to hold us up when they are not strong enough to. We build our self on these objects that we become useless because we are not able to get from point A to point B. We cannot be used to hold what God wants to give us or complete our purpose. We are only useful when we make God our container, if we were to remove ourselves from God we will be garbage. I could not trust God to protect my heart for the longest while and even till today so I chose to wrap myself up in a ball so nothing can come to my heart but also nothing can come from my heart to help others.
We are truly our best selves when we recognize that without God I am a pile of dirt and allow Him to shape us into who He wants us to be. There were no bible verses in this blog at all and it kills me because bible verses help back up everything I have said. It is just hard to pick a bible verse for this when the whole bible is telling us "you are nothing without me but I want to live with you forever and make you everything you can be." From the beginning, we actually see how nothing we were till God breathe His air into us. So if you are feeling heavy and weary in a certain area of your life take some time to ask yourself what is holding me up in that area? Then make the decision to intentionally pass the weight to God so He can use you.
Love you all and I will see you soon.
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