Filled: Lent 2025

Here we are again. Another Lent. Another wilderness wandering. Another start to reflecting on the world via my very sporadic writings. It seems Lent has been the time I feel most compelled to write. Perhaps because of the introspective nature of the season. Maybe it’s just the experience of taking the United Methodist Photo-A-Day challenge and turning it into a post. All I know is here we are again and here I go again.

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Day 20: Filled

I have heard it said, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.”

The point is well taken. If we are constantly emptying ourselves it is unhealthy, perhaps impossible, to have the energy to connect with others, engage the world, and take care of our basic needs. We need to be filled.

The question becomes from which source(s) will we draw from?

Some try work, hoping the pursuit of corporate goals will give us meaning and purpose. This can work for a time, but as another sage has suggested, “no one on their deathbeds wishes they spent more time at work.” There must be something more than our occupation to fill us.

Some will seek fulfillment in a relationship. While we are certainly made for community, we know every relationship is at best a give and take. We also know that at some point everyone will let us down, disappoint us, hurt us in ways that while often unintentional still drain us. People cannot be the ones we turn to to be filled.

Recreation? Hobbies? Travel? Music? Some form of self-actualization?

Again, all can bring us great joy and satisfaction. All have merit and are worth our time and attention. But, as the sustaining force in our lives each will run out and fall short. We grow bored or run out of resources or find we are no longer able to do or enjoy what might have been helpful to us to one point.

You can see where this is going, right? Like those followers of Jesus gathered in an upper room following the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, we will find the only thing that can fill us for the long haul is the Spirit.

Read about it in Acts 2:1-4:

2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Honestly, this shouldn’t come as a surprise though I suspect it often does. How does the creation thrive? When connected to the Creator. If we understand ourselves as being the creation of God, it is only by the Spirit of God then that we find our strength renewed, our hope fueled, our minds refreshed, our lives filled.

I’m loving this Lent as an opportunity to consider this connection and how I have settled for running on fumes all too often. Getting “hungry” and “thirsty” in the wilderness cuts through my pretending and encourages me to remember the source of all I need is not a thing or another person or a pastime, it is the Holy Spirit.

We can’t pour from an empty cup. Fortunately our cup overflows if we let God fill us. (see Psalm 23 for a reminder)

Life is better together with the Spirit,
Shawn