Clay Jars

Dear church family,

One year at Thanksgiving several people had dinner with missionaries in Thailand. In the center of the dinner table was a large, beautiful orchid. That prize flower was the topic of conversation throughout the meal. Shortly after leaving the house, a missionary asked the rest of the group what kind of vase the hostess had used for the centerpiece. Not one of his traveling companions could even remember seeing it. All they remembered was that beautiful orchid. The man made his point, “If we are the kind of earthen vessels or containers we ought to be, nobody will even notice us. They will only see Jesus.”

The apostle Paul wrote, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves” 2 Corinthians 4:7 (NLT).

In this world of self-centeredness, it is easy to fall into the trap of drawing attention to ourselves. We as Christians, though, should constantly seek to draw attention to Jesus Christ and to Him alone.

Brian Sternberg was a sophomore at the University of Washington when he won the national championship on the trampoline with a flawless triple somersault. He also won the pole vault championship and set a world record. Sternberg had one fatal flaw – pride. He was self-centered and independent; he wanted help from no one. Practicing by himself at the university gym one night, he attempted his triple somersault. Sternberg landed on the edge of the trampoline and almost severed his spinal cord at the base of his neck. Instantly he became a quadriplegic.

Sternburg went from 190 pounds of muscle to a mere 87 pounds of skin, bone, and cartilage. As the weeks lapsed into months, he became bitter. While he was in the hospital, a young lady visited him every day and shared about the love of Christ. After years of putting himself in the center of his life, he accepted Christ as his Lord and proclaimed, “Although I’m crippled, I feel like a winner for the first time in my life.”

And sharing his testimony at an international conference, Sternberg closed with, “Oh, I pray to God that what has happened to me will never happen to one of you. I pray that you’ll never know the humiliation, the shame, of not being able to perform one human act. Oh, I pray to God you will never know the pain that I live with daily. It is my hope and my prayer that what has happened to me would never happen to one of you – unless, my friends, that’s what it takes for you to put God in the center of your life.”

So my friends, don’t focus attention on yourself nor seek the attention of others. Instead, focus on Jesus, and live your life in such a way that others must do the same.

See you Sunday!

Pastor Lane