Cracked Pot

This is a post I never ended up posting a couple months back...

One way that God strengthens my spirit and lifts me up in times of weakness is through pictures. I've had two pictures in the corners of my mind for the last three months.
The first was inspired by a Brian Jones e-votional. It was timely encouragement for a shaky heart.

"Jars of clay" is a powerful analogy. At the time Paul wrote this passage, clay pottery, dishes, and cookware were common. Clayware was common because it was so inexpensive to make-clay from the ground and fire to harden it were all that was needed. "Jars of clay" were also very brittle. Our minds and bodies are a lot like those jars of clay. We're frail. We break. We crack and fall to pieces. Clay pots don't hold up real well under extramarital affairs, depression, and bankruptcy. When we manage to keep our lives intact when they should be scattered across the floor in a million pieces, we-and others-realize that something supernatural is holding us together.

His comments gave me a clear picture of my heart at that time- cracked but held together. I found resilience in that, and felt Christ's "holding me together". Paul says it best:

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 be revealed in our mortal body.

The second I'll save for another day!