You're Full of It!

I bet that caught your attention, didn’t it?

It’s likely that the last time you heard those words, you perceived them in a negative sense. Someone might have been expressing disbelief or, worse, that the target of the insult was being less than truthful. Rarely — as in as close to never as you can get – is this idiom used to express a positive attribute, but let’s try. Everyone is full of something, good or bad, so the question we want to contemplate today is this; what am I full of?

St. Paul offers us a suggestion in the form of a sort-of-almost benediction in Romans 15:13:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Joy and peace are products of hope. The hope that we have as Christ followers is 100% vested in the redemptive promise of Jesus Christ. Our hope has no root in our own efforts or the empty promises of this world. It has its birth and growth originating in God alone and he alone sustains it through our believing life. Is this fact that gives our hope it’s buoyancy, allowing it to stay afloat and draw life-giving breath despite the storms that threatened to swamp and even drown us.

Joy and peace are derived from this resilient hope. Joy rooted in the momentary circumstances of life can be snatched away at any time. Peace is threatened constantly by change and upheaval that are part and parcel of life in the world. Joy and peace derived from hope in Christ, however, are secure, firmly bound to a hope that is eternal in nature.

You have to be full of something, be full of hope. In fact, be so full of hope that people say of you “you’re full of it!” Overflow with hope so that it gets all over everybody and everything that you come in contact with. Hope is free for the asking so why not take all you can get?