The Cracked Pot

An elderly woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. 'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'

The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?' 'That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.'

For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house of our master.'

As citizens of God’s kingdom, under the new covenant, we are a group of people that are made of the same stuff. And that stuff is broken. We all have flaws. No one is without them. Some of these flaws are fixed however some are not. It is in these flaws that are not fixed that we see God’s plan.

Paul tells nus in 2 Corinthians 12,  But he (Jesus) said to me, “My grace  is sufficient for you, for my power  is made perfect in weakness. ”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight  in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,  in persecutions,  in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When I use to facilitate a men’s group I would periodically reminds us that we were a bunch of crack pots. Meaning we leak. What do we leak? That would depend on what you were filled with. As followers of Jesus Christ it should be the Holy Spirit. Since one of the jobs of the Holy Spirits is to point people to Jesus. I’d tell these men we need to be leaking out Jesus to those within our personal spheres of influence. This looks like, if you see a need and it’s within your power to meet it then do so and at the same time point to Jesus when thanked. This brings about the beauty of God’s presence in a lost and dying world.

Now since we are crack pots we need to be constantly re-filled. Jesus gives us a well that will never run dry. “….Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4:14 (NIV). However to get re-filled you have to go to the well. Some have stopped going to the well of Jesus and have turned to another well. A well of their own making. A polluted well.

“My people have committed two sins: 

They have forsaken me, 

the spring of living water,

and have dug their own cisterns, 

broken cisterns that cannot hold water. - Jeremiah 2:13 

Psalms 1:3 says, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” However, what happens to the tree if the stream gets polluted? The fruit becomes anemic. The leaves shrivel. The nourishment and comforting shade of the tree becomes compromised. In the same way when we invite pollution into our walk with Jesus we will experience decay instead of godly prosperity, weakness instead of strength, regression instead of progress.

Listen to the writer of Hebrews 10:35-39 says about persevering in avoiding the things that pollute, “So do not throw away your confidence;  it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere  so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  For in just a very little while, “He who is coming  will come and will not delay. But my righteous one  will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

We all have flaws however it is in these flaws that God will be glorified. We will be kept humble. People will hopefully see Jesus and receive the gift of eternal life and become citizens of God’s kingdom. 

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