It is so easy for me to feel disqualified or discouraged, wondering how God can work through me. I compare myself to people who are so much more talented than me. Maybe more than that- I compare myself with some ideal in my head. I know I am not alone in this.
The truth is I am not disqualified, and neither are you!
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 2 Corinthians 4:6-11
I am a little obsessed with all the amazing containers that keep our things organized. There are these cool pickle containers that you can lift the pickles out without having to dig around in the juice for your pickle. I bought some of those bento boxes for my lunches, and they are pretty neat. If I just leave these cool things in my cupboards they aren’t quite as exciting. Their only function is to hold food in them, the pickle container is worthless if I don’t have pickles. I got the pickle container as a gift and I could not get pickles in that thing fast enough, and it gets filled up all the time.
In the same way, we are containers that carry Jesus around to others. We are those clay jars. It is not about us because we are just the container, it is what we carry around that is valuable. We bring the light of Christ to others around us.
Clay jars are fragile- they break easily. We are like clay jars, with cracks and broken places in them. We tend to want to hide our imperfections, like a vase that we turn the crack toward the wall or strategically put something in front of it to hide the broken part. We want to pretend it isn’t there. No matter what you have been through or what you are going through right now we all have those cracks! We are all broken!
Those cracks and broken places aren’t things you need to hide. Those places where you have been broken are places where Jesus can leak out and shine for others to be drawn to him. Jesus makes us whole, he redeems us and heals us, and then shines through us. He goes with you everywhere, let him shine!
You are a cracked pot and you get to hold Jesus in you for all to see.