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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