Many of us grew up in homes where on Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving and maybe a special gathering or two, we would break out the nice china.  You know the dishes that sat all year in the hutch in the dining room.  You could not run through that part of the house or those nice, supposedly expensive, fancy dishes may get broken.  You did not use them in the day to day of your life.  You kind of forgot they were there except when you got yelled at for almost ruining the plates, or when it was a special day the demanded the need to get the china out.

On the other hand, many of us have that coffee mug.  You know the mug that sits in the cup holder of your Civic or F150.  The mug that, if you are honest, is actually pretty gross.  It is stained and kind of crusty.  But here is the thing, you use it every day.  I mean every day.  After all, you depend on it.  You take it from the car to the kitchen each night so the next morning you can fill it with the sweet nectar that is java so you can carry out your day.

Now let me ask you a question…if you consider yourself a person of faith, especially if you would say a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, which better describes the way you interact your faith: the fine china or the coffee mug?  Do you function as though faith is more like an heirloom that you pull out only on special occasions.  Those occasions may be crisis, trials, pain or maybe they are holidays or special events.  But the truth is, you only bring your faith out in unique moments and then otherwise you just keep it at a distance so nothing gets broken or confusing about it.  OR…is your faith like your coffee mug?  You live by it every day.  It has been tested, roughed up, but it has proven faithful.  It is a part of your daily life, and it is something that affects your day to day.  Without it you would be lost so to speak.

In the end, I think one of these ways of living is really a life of faith while the other is more like being superstitious or depending on a genie.  I think there is something here for those of us who call ourselves people of faith to consider.