My Cup
The Chest | October 31, 2026
Marriage is hard. But you know what’s harder? Living every day with pride running the show.
Marriage, and the covenant of marriage, is our example of Christlike love. How Jesus was faithful to His Father, faithful to His church, and faithful to His children, to the point of death.
Because there is no greater love than giving up one’s life for another. Jesus said that. But Jesus meant that. (John 15:13)
And I realize every day, when I try to force my own path or take everyone the way I want to go, by controlling or manipulating or even just dreaming too intensely out loud, how much I have to die to myself.
Every day.
I see how I have to die to my idea of what my life looks like, or my idea of what growth or a lesson looks like.
Completely surrendering myself, my pride, my body, my soul, my entire life to Jesus Christ has shown me more and more every day how I am not the world’s concept of me.
My identity is firmly rooted in the Gospel.
And in all of these things, I lift up my cup of salvation.
“I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” — Psalm 116:13 (NIV)
It’s one of my favorite songs, and I always feel like it’s in the darkest part of my life when I can so clearly visualize a Renaissance-period painting.
It’s a room full of sweaty, gross, drunken, bearded, smelly warriors. Everyone thinks the battle is done because everyone in that darkness, in that room full of iniquity, there is a remnant. There is a person who preserves the blood line. That is the fertile soil.
Unless a single kernel falls to the ground it’s no good unless it dies. You cannot produce fruit if you don’t kill the seed. Creation is brutal.
And the Grim Reaper shows up at the door. The Harvest is dark.
And a single hand shoots up with a gold goblet. A cup of salvation. The Chalas.
Because daily I try to remember that it doesn’t matter how dark it is.
I am saved.
I am chosen.
And my destination has already been determined.
How I get there? That’s up to me.
Will I get there? That’s up to God.
I just try to minimize the damage, move forward, forgive, and love as much as possible.
Make good choices.
The thing is, Eve saw that the fruit was good for eating.
Now, if God is good, and the fruit was good…
Maybe another time.
Scripture woven through this entry
John 15:13 (NIV) — “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Luke 9:23 (NIV) — Jesus calls His disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Him.
Psalm 116:13 (NIV) — “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”
Matthew 25:40 (NIV) — Jesus speaks of “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine.”
Genesis 3:6 (NIV) — “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food…”
