Clay Jars

Sometimes I'm tempted to believe that I'm insignificant.  Sometimes I'm tempted to compare myself to people around me.  

Who hasn't felt like a failure at least once in their life?

It is true that there are many people more talented, intellectual, and spiritual than I.  It is true there are many people more elegant, beautiful, and charming than myself.

But are any of these things what makes a person valuable?

How many people are walking around today believing that their lives are worthless?

How many times do top businesses, politics, the media, Hollywood, etc. leave people with the impression that money, fame, and success are the only ways to gain significance?

Today it is estimated there are about 7,006,988,135 people living in the world.  Not all of those people have what the world deems necessary to be significant.  Most people are pretty ordinary through and through. They are "just another face in the crowd."   

  Everyone has the same needs and everyone desires a happy life.

The world says that we are just another animal in the evolutionary chain.  We are told that there is nothing special about our lives or our deaths.  

But deep down inside people don't want to believe that.  How can a person's life mean nothing?  Who goes to school or university so that they can amount to nothing?  Why do we have hospitals if dying doesn't matter?

People matter.  Living and dying matters.  I matter.

I am not insignificant and neither are you.

So what if you are never on TV or Youtube.  So what if you are not the most handsome or beautiful.  There will never be anyone like you or me.  Every person is unique even if the outside looks very similar to the next person.

The Bible states in 2 Corinthians 4:7:

" 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."

What light is this verse talking about?

Go back one verse to 2 Corinthians 4:6:

" For God who said, 'Let there be light in the darkness,' has made this light to shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ."

The world says we need stuff, we need to accomplish stuff, we need to own stuff in order to be significant.  The Bible says all we really need is to KNOW Jesus in order to be significant to the only one who matters... God.

As a Christian I believe that my creator knows me and I believe that, by reciprocating that desire, I have significance not just in this world but straight into eternity.

Having a relationship with God makes sense to me because He is eternal.  Nothing in this world lasts forever. So if my significance is based only on what I can find here on Earth than its really not worth anything.  I lose it all when I die.  That just seems so pointless to me.

But if I am known and loved by God then my life will continue even after death.  And all I have to do is believe.  That is the greatest gift I have ever been given!

So I am a clay jar.  A pretty ordinary, little, clay jar.  But because I know Jesus Christ I have something in my heart that is very precious.  Priceless.  And when this clay jar is finally broken it is what I have put inside that will be seen. A shining light of glory. 

 I will shine brighter than the stars because I will reflect the glory I have seen in the face of Jesus Christ.