Brokenness…or How to Be A Crack(ed)Pot

We can’t be useful until we are broken.  Until we are, we are too full of ourselves to have any room for Him.  Life is full of hardships that just pound away at our vessel.  When we are strong in ourselves, our vessel does not get damaged.  It can’t, because through each assault, we become harder and harder.  This also means that what is inside of us can begin to ferment and turn sour because through our hardness, it no longer breathes new life into the inside.  So there it sits, stagnant.  If however, under each assault our strength is NOT found in ourselves, each hit weakens that vessel until there are chips, and cracks.  Never enough to shatter it, but enough that it is forever damaged.  But there are differences with that broken pot.  The cracks allow the insides to seep out, draining the level of its contents, allowing it to be filled back up, and keeping the insides new and sweet instead of bitter.  It also allows what is inside to spill out, to be soaked up, instead of being hoarded within.

 Am I hard and broken?  Bitter on the inside, not allowing any drop of myself to be spilled or seen?  Or am I willing to allow myself to be spilled out, soaked up by others? To allow myself to be poured out only be to filled again by what is sweeter, by what is better?  Are you?

~D

It's what you EAT, Who you PRAY to, and how you LOVE

When I consider the devotion of the followers of other faiths, I marvel at their committment and dedication.  Then I consider Christians!

Devotees will flock to ashrams in India, to sit on a stone floor at 4am to chant whole books written in Sanskrit by memory.  But, how many times do we complain from our cushioned pews if the service goes five minutes longer than the sanctioned hour, and agonize over the suggested memorization of one verse of Scripture in our own language!

Just because grace has given us freedom from legalism, didn't James say that faith without works is dead?  Should we not have even more devotion and more dedication if we serve a God that we believe is alive to see and hear?

If they are willing to clean stone floors in silence on their hands and knees, should we AT LEAST be willing to pray on ours?
~D

Give Thanks In ALL Circumstances

I am convicted that I spend so much time trying to change others, that I don't focus on the things that I need to change in myself.  So how can I "be the change I want to see in the world?" (Ghandi) ...in my family...in my community?  Can I be willing to surrender what I am for what I may become? Can I "change my thoughts and change the world?" (Peale)

I have become like dry bones, lost in the valley.  Can I prophesy to myself? That breath will come from the four winds and breathe new life into me? (Ezekiel 37) ...into my family...into my community?  Can these dry bones be revived that I might live the life that I am supposed to...why am I here? What is my purpose?

Things that I am not...submissive, gentle, meek, slow to anger, open, genuine.  Things that I am...opinionated, bossy, condescending, self centered, easily hurt, fake...and so many other things that I'm sure are not in line with THE Plan.

So what do I do?  What do WE do?  Because you and I probably aren't very different are we.  So where do we start?  The first step needs to be made for others to follow.  So like Much Afraid (Hinds Feet on High Places) I will hold fast to my companions, Sorrow and Suffering, so that they can teach me the ways of The Shepherd, so that I can finally learn and take my place in the High Places.  And in doing so, maybe I will bring others with me.

Today I end the journey that He has taken me on, to begin the journey that He knows that I must take alone.  May He be gracious and make my paths straight before me.
~D