Half-Full? Half-Empty?

We have all probably seen an image like the one posted above.

In general, we are all likely to be familiar with the world-view assessment it offers as well.  If you see the glass as half-full, you are an optimist.  If you view it as half-empty you are a pessimist.

It is a fairly interesting (and accurate) means of examining one's perspective, understanding and approach to life.

At the risk of being snarky (and annoyingly over-thinking), allow me to offer my take on the glass:

It is twice as big as I thought it would be.

I remember jokingly offering that as my answer to a friend who asked me the famous glass-view question once.  He was trying to illustrate how I am often too negative about certain subjects (which I admittedly am).  I was trying to be clever and evasive...

...but then I realized, that is how I see life's "glass".

It is just way bigger than I thought.

The times when I see it as half-full are the times when I've poured all I can into it...and am still left lackingly incomplete.

The times when I see it as half-empty are the times when I'm trying my best to get the most out of it...and am still left exhaustedly unfulfilled.

Can you relate?

To see the glass as half-full or half-empty focuses on me.  But, life is not just about me.

To see the glass as twice as big as I thought it would be focuses on something more.  Life is about the "something more".

Obviously, if you know me or have read some of my other posts, my "something more" is an active and on-going relationship with God through His Son, Jesus.

When I give everything I can and find out I am not "filling" the glass of life, I need to be able to turn to a source more vast and varied that me.

The familiar Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my Shepherd") contains this phrase (v.5)

...you fill my cup to overflowing.

In John's Gospel (10:10), Jesus says this:

...but I came to give life—life in all its fullness.

After I've done all I can, life still isn't completely "full".  That truth is what drives many people to despair...or at least desperate (and damaging) attempts to find ways to fill it.

The opposite is also true.  To try one's hardest to get the most out of life and yet to feel as if something is still lacking can be quite disheartening.

I am not an optimist.

I am not a pessimist.

I am a realist.

...and reality has proven to me that the "glass" of my life is simply twice as big as I ever imagined it to be.

I cannot get a "full" life on my own.

I cannot get the most out of life on my own.

Only when I realize there is more to this life (a glass twice was big), can I ever even begin to have a chance to experience it completely.