“Glass bowls” is an expression popularized by syndicated advice columnist Carolyn Hax. It is a euphemism for a crude expression rhyming with it which most American newspapers will not publish. When I first read it, I was amused. It made more sense to me after … well, let me tell you.
Our favorite baseball team was in town. We went to a double-header where “our” team won the first game and the home team won the second. That seemed fair.
On the way down the exit ramp, though, surrounded by celebrating home-towners, one man made himself particularly obnoxious. I imagine he was beer-soaked, but as he goose-stepped (yes, he did!) down the ramp he shouted obscenities about the visiting team. My team.
I was surprised at how much I wanted to confront him, or hide. Mostly I just wanted to get out of there. I felt wounded. After all, visiting teams are, technically, guests.
On the ride home I applied the term, “glass bowl” to him and felt better.
But the next day I began to notice unexpected depths to the phrase.
A glass bowl is transparent. You use it to show off a beautiful trifle or fruit salad. But what if what is in your bowl isn’t pretty? It’s hard to hide what’s in a glass bowl.
That man couldn’t hide what was in his.
That’s when my feelings made a 180. Instead of disgust, I felt compassion. Because, after all, he took his glass bowl and what was in it home with him.
But his glass bowl is not my problem; my own bowl is. It needs attention, vigilance and care to stay clean and beautiful. Friends or family might or might not notice or tell me, depending on the condition of their own bowls. So if I really want honesty and help, I must go to the compassionate source of all Truth:
God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart.
Examine me through and through;
find out everything that may be hidden within me.
Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares.
See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on,
and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way—
the path that brings me back to you. Psalm 139:23-24 The Passion Translation
Because He promised,
If we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 TPT
