You see that little cracked jar. That’s how I’m feeling this morning. I won’t go into detail, but yesterday evening was an interesting one. It ended up with me telling a thief that I would put a bullet in his face if I seen him messing around my stuff again. Now I’m from Mayo, so the redneck runs deep. 🤦♀️ The sad part is that yesterday morning I’m talking about being the reflection of Jesus and a mere eight hours later I am chasing a thief like “Pistol Annie”. Oh, I wish I was joking. As I laid in bed last night rethinking my actions and this morning reading 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 and being moved to tears. The first line I read says:
“Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that they extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.”
Now here I am thinking…I thought I was pretty powerful last night in my own rights, but instead of yelling at this man, I should have relied on the greatness with me and shared Jesus with Him. I know what you are thinking…yeah right, Ashlee…in the moment, that is the last thing most Christians would ever think about in this day when you feel threatened or violated, but I can’t help but think of what a great opportunity to show the love of Jesus that I completely passed over.
I cracked my jar.
If I’m being honest, it hurts deep. I missed an opportunity to shed light into darkness. I ignored a chance to tell someone there is a better way. Listen, God knows I’m not perfect. I know that, too. That’s why I need Jesus. We have the amazing opportunity to house the great glory of God in a simple earthen vessel (clay jar). He uses us, because we have the uncanny ability to show the power of God through a cracked, clay pot.
I read a little further to verse 16-18 and I have hope in my cracked jar….
“Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, it what is unseen is eternal.”
Maybe my cracked jar this morning will help you…but if not, it will remind me to not give up. I may see cracks and chips in this clay jar, but it is temporary. God is renewing me by His mercy and grace each and every day and preparing me for eternity with Him. I may have not been able to show Jesus last night, but I pray that through my cracked jar, someone reading this today will see the beauty, power and greatness of Jesus.
