A Fragile Life

I bet you read the title of this story and thought I was going to talk about how weak we are as humans. You may have imagined a story about someone who was just barely hanging on because of all the damage that had been done to them. Or maybe you were reminded of how fragile our expectations are around the topics of morals and integrity right now. Actually, the story is about all these things and none of them at the same time.

I was listening to a message this past Sunday from one of my all time favorite pastors – my youngest son! He has an amazing heart for God and a truly inspired way of teaching. In his sermon, he talked about the fact that we are fragile people, both physically and spiritually. He reminded us that God uses shattered, fragile people to show the world His strength. It was a message I really needed to hear!

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote that we Christians have God’s light shining in our hearts. That’s a big deal! God is a big and powerful Master who created the whole of the universe and yet He allows His light of love to live in us!

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.    – 2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT)

If you think about light, it’s only visible when it’s able to shine. If you had a lamp that was beautifully ornate, sturdy and made of solid gold, it would be a lovely conversation piece in your home but not a lick of light would ever come out of it; the lamp would be lovely but useless based on what it was created to do. A useable lamp has a hole in the top and bottom so the light can shine and illuminate a room or project.

Sometimes, especially in a world where social media is how most of us connect, it’s very easy to see the images and things people post and think that the whole world has their act together except me. Well, maybe you don’t think that, but I have to admit that sometimes I do. I’ve even projected that “got it going on” image myself at times when I maybe haven’t actually felt it.

It’s especially challenging when you know that people are watching you and the assumption is that, as a Christian, I shouldn’t feel doubt or fear or sadness. The expectation, from non-believers and believers alike, is that God miraculously removes all those feelings once I accept Him into my heart. If I doubt or am afraid or am sad, then I must not be a very good Christian. Well, I’m here to tell you nothing could be further from the truth!

When Jesus, the Son of God, lived as a man here on earth the Bible tells me that He experienced all the same feelings and temptations that we feel; that’s why I can be confident in the fact that Jesus knows and understands everything I’m going through. He understands that being human means being fragile both physically and spiritually.

The most encouraging thing about being fragile is that once I’ve come to the point where I just can’t go on and feel I’m too fragile and broken to be of any good to anyone, God is able to step in and use my exact weakness to show the world His strength. God uses the brokenness in each of us to bring others to Him, to show the world what real love looks like and to be a part of His grand master plan – the salvation of the world!

As I think about all of this, I’m reminded of an old fable that you may have heard before. It’s one of my favorite illustrations of how my loving Heavenly Father can use my flaws for good even when all I see is failure.

An elderly woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole, which she carried across her neck to collect water from the stream just outside her village. 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 walk 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 2 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.”

May you be reminded that God loves you and made you exactly the way you are for a very good reason. You and I may never fully know or understand what that reason is, but that’s where faith comes in. Faith that God’s got this and He’s so much better at seeing beyond what we see and understanding beyond what we can imagine. I hope when I get to heaven, I’ll find out that I was that fragile, cracked pot that ended up watering and pouring out love onto those that would have been lost otherwise! Amen!