[Darris McNeely] There’s a glass of water. You know the question: is it half-full, or is it half-empty? It’s a cliché, I understand that. But it helps to illustrate something that all of us need to think about when it comes to our lives, and the mindview that we establish and have throughout our life about ourselves, about other people, about life, about God, and what we can achieve. Do we live a life that’s half-empty, or do we live a life that is half-full? Pessimistic or optimistic?

That is a critical question, and it’s important for all of us as we look at having that mindset and what we adopt and do. Let’s look at this glass of water, and let’s look at something that is just half empty. What do we mean by that, in terms of a lifeset, a mindset? Well, for one person it’s rather critical. All right? Negative, problem-focused. You ever run across someone who is, who treats every situation looking for the loose brick? The loose brick syndrome. And they’re not happy till they find that loose brick that they can pull out and destroy an argument, destroy a situation, find the problem when everything else might be positive? That’s a person that’s living life like a half-empty approach. Where do you fit in that? Probably one of the best illustrations I can think of is what we all saw in childhood and probably with our children and grandchildren – the “Winnie the Pooh” series. Remember Eeyore, the donkey, the donkey who lost his tail? The negative, droopy donkey walking around all the time. Nothing was positive in his life. His friend Kanga pinned a tail on Eeyore and all he could say was, “Well, it’s an awful nice tail, Kanga. Much nicer than the rest of me.” And then he saw a new house had been made out of sticks for himself, and he looked at it and it was kind of plain-looking – “Not much of a house. Just right for not much of a donkey.” They’re classic tales. But in the case of Eeyore, it illustrates an example. Where do you fit? Are you positive, or are you negative? Is your glass half-empty, or is it half-full?

There’s a theory in economics called “zero sum”. “Zero sum” basically says that there’s a finite amount of whatever it might be – let’s take a piece of pie. You cut that pie into eight pieces, and if one piece is given to someone else and you’re looking at it, you see only the fact that you have one less. Someone else gets something, and you don’t, and you see it all in finite terms rather than the fact that someone else shares, someone else enjoys a slice of that, and through that, possibly cold even increase economically what had begun with just a finite amount – by labor, by work, by investment of capital. Zero sum – it’s kind of an economic theory. But if you see only things in finite bases then, again, it’s going to be half-empty, rather than seeing that by sharing, dividing it up, putting out the capital to others – their efforts, their abilities, and their talents, can expand and create more – more wealth, more opportunity for other people. That’s the difference between living a half-full life and a half-empty life.

There’s a scripture in 1 Corinthians 12:26 that talks about a mindset as well as when it comes down to the personal relationships that we have with one another, because a half-empty person is going to look at someone else’s success, someone else’s friendships, and say, “They’ve got friendships that I don’t have, or more than I have. They have more money than I have. They have a bigger boat than I have, a bigger house.” And not able to rejoice in someone else’s good fortunes, success, even just their personal approach toward life. In 1 Corinthians 12:26 – there’s an attitude described here, I think, that gets under the half-full approach that says, regarding the body and our relationships with people, “There should not be any schism or divisions,” he says, “but that the members should have the same care for one another; if one suffers, all the members suffer. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” Joy. That’s what it’s talking about. Having joy among our members, among ourselves, your relationships, your family, your friends, your coworkers – that’s a half-full approach.

Again, I ask, what’s your mindset? What’s your mindview? Half-empty, half-full. Consider that, understand that, and you’ve got a key to understanding exactly what the proper mindview should be for life. Next time, we’re going to come back and we’re going to talk about a very important parable from the Bible, the parable of the talents, that helps us to understand this a little deeper.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.