Cracked Pot

Just in case anyone actually reads this, I want to be sure I have not come across as someone who spiritually has it together.  Believe me, I do not.  I am a poor pilgrim who moves from day to day by the grace of God. I have come to understand that spirituality does not consist in what you know, but rather by who you know.  As long as I think I know something, the grace of God has no foothold.  When I throw up my arms in surrender, the door is open for grace to come in and reside.  The more I practice, the less I know and the less sure I am of the things I thought I knew.  This may seem like a shaky position to be in.  And at times, it is uncomfortable.  And yet, unless I am emptied of myself, how can God ever fill me with His treasure.  The spiritual life is a life of paradox.  If you want to be filled, you must empty yourself.  If you want to be found, then lose yourself.  If you want to live, you must die to self.  If we are willing to submit ourselves to God, he will begin separating the wheat from the chaff in us.  He will form us into what he purposed for us when he created us.  Is it painful? Yes, but He is there to carry that burden with us.  When I am weak, His grace is abundant.  When I am strong, I am just a cracked pot.

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. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.