Children’s Pastors & the Empty Cup: A Conversation in Self-Care & Spiritual Disciplines

I am a visual learner. I think in pictures and images. In my life, when I hear words or concepts, I view them as paintings or movies in my mind.

Because of this, there is one popular idiom that frustrates me.

“You can’t pour from an empty cup.”

Intellectually, I get it. You have to take care of yourself in order to take care of others. But for me, I can’t get past the mental images long enough to embrace to popular quotation.

Let me invite you inside to see the picture.

Imagine sitting as a guest in someone’s home and being offered tea or coffee. And then, your host pours you some coffee from their own cup.

Wait. What just happened?

 Did they just…?

They totally did. I’m not drinking that!

 Fake it. Be polite… but I’m not drinking that.

I know what you’re thinking. I obviously do not understand the symbolism. I have missed out on the key lesson. “You’re missing the point, Allie.”

Or maybe, I’m not.

In my goofy way of thinking, an important thought crossed my mind as it relates to my role in ministry or my life as a follower of Jesus Christ.

In life, we of course do not pour from cups. We pour from pitchers. We pour from carafes. We pour from some sort of vessel into cups. And in ministry, we pour into many cups.

Our problem is not that the vessel runs out for we know that it contains an endless supply of “living water.” I think that often in ministry, our problem is that we pour into other cups first. By the end of the day, though there is more than enough to pour into our own cup, we are simply out of time or energy to do so.

We practice hospitality to our own detriment. We do for others and do not for ourselves.

Christ came that we would not just have life, but have it to the full (John 10:10). Our cups should not just be full. They should be overflowing because of our close connection with the Father through Christ. If that is not the case, it should be a major red flag flying in our weary faces, warning us of the looming danger. We’re probably just too tired to notice.

So in our lives as followers of Christ who serve in ministry, what can we do to make sure that our cup does not remain empty while we fill the many cups of others?

In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting some ideas, but I’m curious.

What do you do in your life to make sure your own cup does not remain empty?