The joy of being a crackpot

Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

I hope you are all doing well, staying safe and taking prudent precautions during our emergency lockdown. As I’ve been spending more time at home, I’ve started listening to podcasts. This is a relatively new thing for me, but I think pastor Paul has been making good use of podcasts during his drives to work since you can play them from your smartphone. Instead of a sermon at church this Sunday, please consider listening to an online sermon on YouTube or a podcast.

This site has many good messages:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/tgc-podcast/

And here is a site that lists many of the most popular Christian podcasts on a variety of topics that might interest you:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-daily-walk-radio/id816776146?mt=2#see-all/top-podcasts

I just finished up a long series on the book of James and we ended by talking about how God can use our weakness and sickness as testimonies and ministries and turn them into to strengths. I know Pastor Paul loves a good story so I’ll share this one with you (again?).

An elderly Indian man had two large pots. Each pot hung on the ends of a pole, which he carried across his shoulders. Every day, he used this device to carry water to his home. One of the pots was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. The other had a deep crack in it and leaked. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this situation occurred daily, with the man bringing home only one and a half pots of water. The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the man one day by the stream, saying, “I am ashamed of myself because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The old man smiled and replied, “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 of the path, and every day while we walked back home you watered them and made them grow. For two years, I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table and give to my friends and neighbors. Without you being just the way you are, there would not have been this special beauty to grace our homes and lives.”

Sometimes, it’s the “cracks,” or what we perceive as our imperfections or weaknesses, that create something unexpected and beautiful. Do not be ashamed of your “cracks.” Rather, let God use them to make something beautiful grow in the world.