Old Cups

                When I was a young lieutenant I was issued a steel canteen cup.  It was a wonder of military equipment.  In the field, it was one of the most useful tools I had.  After I boiled my morning coffee in it, it became the wash basin from which I shaved.  Twenty-five years later, I still have it and eat my oatmeal from it for breakfast.  Over time, from the rough use to which soldiers put all of their gear, my canteen cup became scratched and marred.  And, although it still held water just as a new canteen cup would do, I wanted to exchange it for a new one, an un-marred  cup without scratches.  So, I took my old canteen cup to the issue facility and asked the old sergeant there to exchange it for a new one.  The sergeant took my canteen cup and inspected it carefully.  He traced his fingers across the scratches and looked closely at the marred finish.  Finally, he pushed it back to me.

                “Lieutenant, I can’t give you a new canteen cup,” he said.

                “Why not sergeant?  This one is scratched and marred.”  I replied.

                “Yeah, I see that Sir, but it’s still  serviceable.  I can’t give you a new cup because your old cup is still serviceable.  They way  troops treat their gear in the Army, all we’d ever do is hand out new canteen cups if we did it that way.  My advice to you Lieutenant is to take better care of this old cup, because it’s probably the only one  you’re ever going to get.”

                The old sergeant was right.  Soldiers are hard on their gear.  I had been hard on my canteen cup, even though it was one of the most useful pieces of equipment I had.  So, I took back my old canteen cup, scratched and marred as it was, and I kept on using it.  It was serviceable then and it is serviceable now, twenty –five years later.    

                Those of us who come to the Lord later in life often do so with considerable scratches and dents in our earthly hides.  When we feel the changes to our character and heart that are the by-product of salvation, we gaze sheepishly at the effects on our old self that resulted from the hard use to which we put ourselves before we accepted grace.  We want our worn exterior to conform to the new interior.  We want a new cup, one without scratches from wear and tear.  This happened to me.  But like my old sergeant, the Lord pushed back my old dented self and told me that despite the wear, it was Serviceable—though in dire need of better care.