What it feels like to be a clay pot!

I've just returned from a wonderful 2 day trip to North Carolina and come to the realisation, as if I didn't know fully before now, how privileged I am to be in this place and have the opportunity to live, train and work with these amazing people. It's difficult at any time to come to terms with your own sense of inadequacy and by humbled by those you see and meet, but it's an ev en greater experience to be lifted up and encouraged by those very same individuals. To be reminded that:

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"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." (Zep 3.17)

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To be told that:

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"Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Cor 3.4-6)

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And:

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"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil 4.13)

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God is faithful to all these promises and despite our weaknesses he reigns in truth. He is strong and can overcome the obstacles that, as clay pots, we risk collapsing under. If there's anything that I have learnt over this past 8 days here in Nashville, it is that ministry, or any sort, is a difficult calling to work out. It is impossible for any human being to be faithful to their calling on their own, it is God who uses us as instruments of his will. 2 Corinthians 4.1ff says that:

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"Since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. Onthe contrary. by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man;s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing...For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as servants for Jesus' sake...we have treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from Godin the face of Christ. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

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I could go on and on, but remember this - it is Christ not us, it is to his glory not ours and it is his strength that conquers and pervails even as our weaknesses are weighing us down. But proud in being a clay pot - we may get in the way if we were greater than what we are.