Just Jars of Clay

In the Bible, Paul describes our bodies as jars of clay.  The older I get the worse shape this 'jar of clay' is in. It has been through a lot and put on many miles. It feels like it is time to trade it in on a new model. There are chips and cracks and scrapes, but it is still able to hold a precious treasure that I sometimes take for granted or forget is there.

Inside this beat-up jar of clay is the gift of the Holy Spirit. God's power dwells in us, no matter what kind of shape we are in. The vessel isn't important. It's what it carries that matters. God has given us His power to work for Him, to shine for Him, to reflect the life of Jesus through it. By using our jars of clay we are able to touch others with His love and change lives forever.

No matter how fragile or broken our vessel has become, we still are empowered by God to do great things. He will use our weak and crooked bodies to shed light into someone else's darkness. He transforms our jars of clay into conduit that transmits hope into a sad and hopeless life. He fills us with His love that overflows and spreads out to the people we meet.

"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 the glory of God 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" (2 Corinthians 4:6-10 NIV).

May each of us use our humble jars of clay to carry God's message into the world that is so dark and troubled. May His power spill out and flood our neighborhoods with God's promises today.