Jesus Juice

You may recognize the post title if you happen to be one of the few readers of my other blog, Addicted to Faith. I wrote this entry in 2010 after an unusual experience on a Sunday morning. I like it so much that I thought I would reprint here so that my rapidly growing audience (single digit growth!!)(sarcasm implied)(wow double, no triple parenthetic thoughts) can enjoy it also. Well I hope you do...

So I stopped at the gas station on the way into church for a quick cup of hot coffee. Gas station coffee is never very good but caffeine was on this mornings Must Do List.
 The girl behind the counter had an unusual hair color and style, perhaps Purple Peaks would be descriptive enough. She also was the proud owner of an abundant amount of sterling silver, I know this because she wore it proudly in her eyebrows, her nose, her lips and of course her ears.

This young I-Generation clerk  asked of my purchase, "Is that all this morning?". I mumbled yes and laid two dollars on the counter.
She inquired, "You on the way to church?"
"Yes I am", I replied, surprised a little by her question.
"Gotta get your tank filled with the Jesus Juice!", she proclaimed as she handed me my change.
Jesus Juice? I don't believe I had ever heard this unusual phrase, much less ever considered that I was filling my tank with it.
 

This oh-so brief conversation stayed with me on the long drive into San Antonio. In fact, it would stay with me all morning. The sibylline clerk's words rang in my ears all through an inspired Bible study on moral issues. As church service began with a guest chorale from Atlanta, Georgia beautifully singing praises I continued to consider "Jesus Juice".
When the preaching began I thought surely that moment in time, spent in a small Texas gas station on I35 would begin to fade. But it didn't.
 

When the Mercer University youth closed us in song sung so perfectly that I believe the angels in heaven stopped to listen, the mental picture of a tank filled with Jesus Juice, after taking all morning to develop, was finally clear in my mind's eye.
 

Suddenly clear was the memory from last  Sunday's worship service. Last Sunday, (and many more past Sundays.)The bible study had been just as inspirational. The music just as uplifting and the preaching was powerfully God's word. I had left after each service "filled with the spirit". So why did my tank need to be re-filled? Where had the Jesus Juice gone in just seven days? 

Why did I feel empty going in and full coming out?
What happens to our tanks between Sundays?
 

It is easy to blame some of this evaporation on the world outside the church. Sadly our world is not prone to seeing God Monday through Saturday, neither do many church-goers. Or maybe some of the juice is burnt up by an emotional train that speeds through our week, requiring us to expend more of the fuel than normal. Perhaps like a thief in the night, people we know and even love siphon off our tanks for their own use.
 

Pretty easy to place blame.Pretty easy to justify the need for a refill each Sunday morning by proclaiming a "Bad week."
 

I always try to be honest to the person in the mirror and just as honest to those I call my readers. So honestly...

I lose most of that Jesus Juice by poking holes in my own tank. Each time I make the wrong decision, self centered instead of Christ centered, I drive a nail through the lining of the tank, allowing the juice seep out. As the tank level lessens it becomes easier to jab and jab again, making more holes, releasing more of Christ. Sometimes by Saturday night, only faint fumes remain. Just enough to get me back to church, where I sputter in, anticipating, needing, praying for the Jesus Juice.
 

God will let me go on in the wasteful pattern as long as I am stupid enough to do so. He loves me that much. He also loves me enough to remind me that although I may think that my tank is empty, it never really is. He said-
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
Unconditional.
 

"No one can snatch them out of my hand."            
Unending.

"It is finished"                                                   
Love.