We are still stuck in 1 Corinthians 13….agreed to read it every day for another week. It keeps our minds focused on real love, and points out how easily Self gets in the way. As I read it over and over, the words are taking up residence in my head, and I turn them over, examine them throughout the day…like gems, they catch the light in different ways as they turn, new truth constantly becoming clear: “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword…” (Heb. 4:12)
Last night I had that familiar weight of inadequacy hanging over my head; this morning I woke with “If I speak in the tongues of men and angels…if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries…if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains…but have not love, I am nothing” running through my head. What is it about us that wants to have those grand spiritual abilities? We all want to be the gorgeous vase on the mantle that everyone admires, or at least the good china to pull out for special occasions. Loved, put-together, accomplished. Who wants to be the drab clay pot with the chipped edge that carries the water?
But notice that Paul doesn’t even bother to say: “If I spend Saturday mornings distributing bread to the poor and have not love….” He is not admonishing them about the excellence of love when they are taking that lonely college student home for dinner. He is not reminding them of the necessity of love when they are hugging that weeping sister in the hallway after Sunday School…. or sitting at the desk at home writing notes to people on the prayer list….or rocking babies in the nursery so that young mothers can go to Sunday School. He doesn’t have to, because these people already “get it.” They are content to be “stewards of God’s grace” (1 Peter 4:10) however He chooses to use them. They know the truth: that they are only clay pots, ordinary and not very sturdy, but so very useful to the Body-group when God’s glory is within, shining out through the broken places.
The Corinthian church was immature and full of ambition and comparison, and what we call The Love Chapter was actually a scathing rebuke to them for their lack of love, for their desire to Be Somebody within the Body of Christ. Often we are not so very different. I have spent most of my adult life so far arguing with God about the way He made me, and why did He ever call someone like me to ministry like this anyway? But at some point in our growth, faith has to bow to the Creator in submission and acknowledge that He is the One who made me just this way, and knows not only who I am but who He is making me to be… put Self to death and acknowledge that He put me here for His plans and purposes, for His own pleasure. It’s not about me at all.
A dear friend once pointed out that clay pots, as uneven and cracked as they might be at times, have the most potential for leaking out what they carry…which is immensely meaningful when what they carry is the life and light of Christ. So I bend my will to be content as a lopsided, drab pot, and in humility accept that the Creator God knows what He is doing in my life. All I have to do is be obedient to what He puts in front of me each day, one day at a time, and love Him, love others in every way possible.
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them…” (Romans 12:4-5)
“It’s all about You, Jesus, and all this is for You, for Your glory and Your fame. It’s not about me, as if You should do things my way. You alone are God, and I surrender.” (Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Paul Oakley)