God Uses Broken Things
If you’re a cracked pot, don’t despair.
God delights to use cracked pots. God can shine through the cracks and flaws of
your life if you’ll just surrender yourself to Him.
J. Hudson Taylor was one of the first
missionaries to the take the gospel to China. Although he suffered from
extremely poor health, God used him. He was a weak man, but he was a plain,
empty clay jar that God filled with the treasure of Jesus Christ. Taylor once
wrote, “All of God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God
because they reckoned on Christ living in them.” Hudson Taylor was too humble
to call himself a giant, but he understood that a mighty God can use broken,
cracked, weak vessels.
There is a beautiful fable from China
that illustrates exactly what I’m trying to teach. Once upon a time there was
an elderly Chinese woman who owned two large clay pots. She would hang each pot
on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. Each day she would
walk from her house to the nearby stream to fetch water. She would fill up both
pots, pick up the pole and walk back to her house. One of the pots had a crack
in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full pot of water.
At the end of the long walk back to her house, the cracked pot always arrived
only half full. Because of the crack, half the water had leaked out during the
trek.
For two full years, this happened
daily. The Chinese woman arrived home with only one and a half pots of water.
Of course, the perfect pot was proud that it had never lost a drop of precious
water. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection, and was
miserable. The cracked pot thought of itself as a complete failure. One day,
the cracked pot was so tired of failing that it spoke to the woman. The cracked
pot said, “I am ashamed of myself because this crack in my side causes water to
leak out all the way back to your house. I have failed you, and I’m sorry.
Maybe you need to replace me with another pot that isn’t cracked.”
The old woman smiled and said gently,
“Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the
other pot’s side? I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower
seeds on your side. And every day as I’ve walked back you’ve been watering
those seeds. For the past two years I’ve been able to pick the flowers to
decorate my table. Without you being just the way you are, there would have
been no beautiful flowers to grace my home.”
Brothers and sisters, it’s okay if
you’re a cracked pot. There is a tremendous value in being broken. We throw
away things when they’re broken, but God cherishes broken people. God uses
broken things. Jesus took the five loaves from the little lad and broke them
before He multiplied them. He wants to multiply your effectiveness but He can
only do that when you’re broken. When Mary brought the alabaster box of
perfume, it was only when it was broken that the fragrance filled the house.
And when you are broken, the fragrance of Christ can be detected in your life.
Jesus even said, “This is my body which is BROKEN for you.” So, broken down,
cracked pots, rejoice because God uses cracked pots so that He and He alone
will get the glory!
~David Dykes
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