I used to hate the phrase, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” I thought it was trite and silly…that is until life gave me some major lemons!! I struggled through tears to make whatever lemonade I could from the hard situations in my life. Lemonade is suppose to be refreshing but you can’t have it without first squeezing those bitter fruits!! It is from a pitcher of lemonade that I learned some valuable lessons.
Psalm 1 talks about the righteous and says, “We are planted by streams of water,” …streams are fresh waters…or if you will “living” water. Crystal clear and fresh…it is needed for the young sapling to grow…and to eventually bear fruit. Often, if we move away from the stream, we suffer a drought…we need water. Isaiah 55: 1 tells us to “come” to the waters” and as we drink deeply we grow and soon sweet smelling blooms appear---we know the peace of God and believe things are going to be great! In time the blooms fall and fruit begins to develop; we are often surprised that the fruit is a lemon. We taste it and find it bitter and try desperately to make lemonade but find the result to be only cloudy water. We can no longer see clearly…we wonder if the water will ever be translucent again?
Life isn’t fair but it was never going to be no matter what we wanted! Jesus told His disciples, “In this world you are going to have trouble…but be of good cheer…I have overcome the world!” John 16:33. Even in knowing that, we must deal with cloudy water and bitterness. It is hard. What can we do and what if we don’t like lemonade!!??
Consider the ingredients of lemonade: water, lemons and sugar.
◊ The water obviously is Jesus--the living water
◊ The sugar is His Grace given by the Holy Spirit placing His peace and comfort in the hard times of our lives
◊ The lemons, obviously, represent the hardships of the world.
I learned two basic lessons from my pitcher of lemonade. I learnedthat the three components, once mixed, are inseparable. Once we go through a hardship it will always be a part of us and we need to discover how to deal with it. We can have victory! And I learned that the largest component in the pitcher is always the water.
So how does knowing this help us in times of trials? Some will add more lemons and allow bitterness to take over in their lives but that doesn’t help! Others might want to add more sugar to just feel better but after awhile, even that becomes undrinkable. The more I reflected on this it was apparent that I needed to add more water. So I did and the taste definitely changed…so I added more and more water until before long, I could barely taste the lemons…there was a faint flavor but no longer bitter…no longer sour. I tasted mostly water. Do you get it?? When we add more living water in our lives, the taste of the world is less.
It is about our focus! If we focus on the lemons (the hardships) we will want to add more sugar… but if we focus on the water (Jesus and His purposes) that solves the problem. That is what Jesus meant when He said, “I have overcome the world.” He overcomes the bitterness of life. The way we deal with lemons is not just making lemonade but to continue adding the living water. Focus on the water not the lemons nor the sweetener but the one who said he would always be with us.
We started with Psalm 1…being planted by the living water and that is how to deal with lemons…they are going to come….but if we stay planted by the Living Water, eventually we have the victory…and this focus brings the spiritual refreshing we think about when we think about lemonade…it quenches our deep thirsts. We become stronger and even though we might have preferred no lemons, we can use them as a conduit for desiring more of the living water Christ offers. So drink up!! When life gives you lemons…add water!!!! Living water!
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