Others before Self

The text:

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Somehow this video/story reminded me of Jesus’ parable in Luke 14:7-11.

Luke 14:7-11 The Voice

7Then He noticed how the guests were jockeying for places of honor at the dinner, so He gave them advice.

Jesus: 8Whenever someone invites you to a wedding dinner, don’t sit at the head table. Someone more important than you might also have been invited, 9and your host will have to humiliate you publicly by telling you to give your seat to the other guest and to go find an open seat in the back of the room. 10Instead, go and sit in the back of the room. Then your host may find you and say, “My friend! Why are you sitting back here? Come up to this table near the front!” Then you will be publicly honored in front of everyone. 11Listen, if you lift yourself up, you’ll be put down, but if you humble yourself, you’ll be honored.

Well, Jesus’ parable is about humbling ourselves and not having to lift ourselves up. The story of the coffee is similar in a sense it is about not putting ourselves higher than others. I guess it is normal that we tend to do that. Recently I have attended many weddings. You know when you go to one and you’re the earliest, you will tend to sit in the position that have the best view of the stage, regardless if you really want to see the stage or not. If you’re not the earliest on the table, 100% of the time, the best seat with the best view will have someone sitting there already. Not just weddings but anywhere we go including even going to church, people always want to get the best seats, the most comfy ones, etc. Jesus is telling us to do something different that is totally not of our human nature, I must say, it is a small thing but it is hard to do. If the human race will only listen and put others before self, well, what a mighty different world we will live in today.