Which Bucket Are You?

bydigpacitti

514 followers

8 years ago

I am trying to use this analogy that St. Augustine wrote.

Imagine there are two buckets: one filled with the sweetest smelling perfume and the other filled with raw sewage. While the buckets are sitting there still and nothing disturbs them you may not notice any odor coming from either one. Now a person comes up and kicks the bucket filled with perfume. The perfume shakes violently and some may spill. As this happens the room becomes filled with the most sweetest smelling fragrance imaginable. The more the bucket is shaken the more the sweet odor spreads and it becomes enjoyable to be around.

Now a person comes up and kicks the bucket filled with the raw sewage. The sewage shakes violently and some may spill. Now the room becomes filled with the most foul smelling stench. The more violent the shaking of this bucket the worse the stench becomes that it becomes unbearable to be in the room.

Don't we all know people like that? We know that person that when life comes and shakes them violently that they reach deep inside them to a faith that drives and carries them through. They don't let these storms turn them angry and one can almost be amazed that as they suffer that person can somehow still bring comfort to you. Their sufferings somehow cause them to spread a sweetness that one can't imagine possible.

Then we know others that even when the slightest thing goes wrong that person can become like a wild animal. These people somehow begin to take satisfaction with spreading their own misery and try to spread it mightily. It becomes a burden and a hardship to deal with these people when storms enter their lives.

I know which bucket I am. I also know which bucket that I want to be!

I say it many times that storms come into our lives. No one can avoid them as they are part of our lives and are there to somehow cause us to grow in ways we don't know. These storms can and will interfere with whatever our plans are here at WA.

I had thought that I would be much further along in my training but there seems to have been one storm after the other. Then when I do think I have time to devote back at WA I find that I am in a rut because my passion has yet to reveal itself. So what should I do? Should I become a foul stench and blame life for interfering and blame WA for not making me rich quicker? Or should I navigate through the storms knowing that there will be clearing up ahead and I will be back on track in life and here at WA?

I hope that when I am shaken that I can be one who can spread a beautiful fragrance. I hope that when I see others suffering through their storms that I can have wisdom and knowledge to help that person turn their sufferings into a sweet fragrance as well! I hope that all of us here at WA succeed at what it is that we set forth to succeed at.

The main thing, which is what we all continually encourage each other, is to not give up! Perhaps you are a month behind where you thought you were going to be. So what? What matters is that you get back up and keep pressing forward. By not giving up you will reach your goal no matter how long it takes. And on your travels hopefully we will leave a trail of a beautiful fragrance that will fill people with hope in knowing that we are here for each other. In the end that is all that matters.