Sparkly Spots

On the one pretty Saturday we had in March, Tom and I began Phase One of our annual back yard revival.  We cleared out leaves, washed cushions, and assessed damage to plants.  In the process, I accidentally smacked one of our nicer large pots and put a hole in the side. And all this time I thought that pot was made of durable rubbery material! It had endured hard winters and hot summers, heavy wind, torrential rains, chlorine water, and growing roots to suffer at the hands of my clumsiness. 

I didn't throw it out - it would be too expensive to replace and the break didn't affect its ability to hold a plant yet. The hole, however, faces away from the house, out of sight. 

We all have fragile, breaking places in our lives.  Sometimes we try to appear resilient - made of stronger stuff, but the world loves to find or make holes in believers with just a slap of words like: 
"I thought you were a Christian!" 
     "A real Christian wouldn't do  - or say - that." 
          "A real Christian would help me (out of this mess I'm in due to irresponsibility)." 
               "You're such a hypocrite."
                    "I didn't think Christians got angry."
                         "Is that really what Jesus would do?"
                              "You're being judgmental."

Yes, world - we're weak and imperfect. We're flawed and we make mistakes. We fail. We sin. We doubt. We break and we burn out. We're not Jesus, but here's what separates the sheep from the goats - there is more to us than us.   

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay 

to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 

2 Corinthians 4:7

God is interested in the holes in our lives because He wants to fill them with His all-surpassing power. When we point them out to Him for His diagnosis, He doesn't cover the wound but strengthens us with His power. I'm still learning to accept and even embrace my weaknesses as opportunities for God to apply His power. Any one of those statements above could render a believer mute and shamed, chalking one up to Satan in the psychological warfare he's declared on us. Let's not fall for that trick again. God calls us to do the more difficult thing: to trust Him to use our fragile points, our flaws and the gaping holes in our character.  He doesn't want us to hide them but to fill the holes with the treasure He's put in us. The world doesn't need perfect believers but believers with sparkly spots.

Dear God, You are the Treasure worth living for and worth dying for. Fill my weakness with Your strength. You know my struggles and insecurities. I need Your power to overcome them and to come out of hiding.  Shame and regret can ruin a perfectly good pot, but I know You can and will produce fruit in any jar of clay willing to let You turn weaknesses into sparkly spots for Your glory.  

In Jesus Name, the Name of the only sinless One!