One at a Time...

A call came in to the Church office one day.  “This is Bill, from the Monday morning prayer group.  This morning, we got ready to pour the coffee, and noticed that none of the mugs we bought for the kitchen was there.”
 
“How many mugs do you have?”
 
“We bought ten, and it seems like the number just kept dwindling.  Now, we have none.  Could you ask around and see what might have happened?”
 
The secretary assured him she would.  She then came to me, since I have been known to drink a few cups of coffee at my desk.  I looked around, and sure enough I had borrowed one of their mugs and had forgotten to take it back.  That accounted for one, but where were the other nine?
 
Another staff member who kept a very messy office and work space caught wind of the investigation.  He wanted to know what the mugs looked like.  Armed with that information, he walked into his office, scooted some things around, and returned carrying the other nine missing mugs. He explained that he had misplaced the mugs, one at a time.  They just kept piling up in his messy office until one day, he realized the error of his ways.  He hadn’t set out to take nine mugs, but by the time he stopped to inventory his office, he realized that one mug at a time, he had taken nine mugs.
 
The case of the missing mugs was solved.  But it leaves me to wonder if our lives become piled up with mistakes and errors because we never stop to take inventory of the ways we mess up.  We want to do the right thing, but we can become very habitual about doing the wrong thing.  When confronted with how wrong we’ve been, we’re surprised at what is left in our wake.
 
What do you see when you look behind you?  Have you slowly compromised principles, or slowly let things clutter your life that shouldn’t be there?  It’s time to take the mugs back to the kitchen, and get a fresh start!
 
What we do here matters.
​