Meditations: Difficult Circumstances

Jars of Clay

2 Corinthians 4:7 
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

One time while organising English lessons for students in Balti, usually just a handful of students came and always known ones.
However, one lesson things had begun as usual. Just two or three students and I had launched into one of my famous (or for some infamous!) worksheets, when all of a sudden the door burst open and not just one or two students walked in, but five and more than that, one of them was a Christian girl who had been coming to our student activities, but the other four were non-Christian colleagues of hers from university.
I became nervous at this influx of new participants, but I’m always well prepared with way too many worksheets, so at least there was enough material to go round. We worked through what I had and then everybody went home.
The next week only two of these girls came. The week after just one and then after that none of them came.
Some time later, I happened to have a conversation with the Christian girl who had invited these colleagues and I asked how she had managed to get four of her colleagues to come to the English lesson. She said that it was easy. She just told them that an unmarried English guy would be leading the lesson and so they came. This then begged the obvious next question, why didn’t they come back? The girl’s response was, “Well, they saw you!”. After a moments silent reflection, she then added by way of comfort, but it’s better to be Christian than Brad Pitt!
Ideal would be to be both Christian and Brad Pitt, but obviously you can’t have everything and indeed it’s true that it’s much, much better to be Christian than a famous, handsome movie star.
Often in life we are burdened by our weaknesses. The fact that we are not anything at all like other popular people (even though in our imaginations we probably are!) or that others reject or take advantage of us.
We can have many difficulties in this life due to our personal failings or the challenges of dealing with those around us. It would have been nice to have gotten married, but it’s not easy when girls avoid or reject you or try to  have things their own way.
One girl that I knew (not that I had any romantic intentions towards her, but it illustrates the point well) levelled some criticism at me, but sometime later started contacting me to help her; “Hi! How are you? By the way, I need....” I did indeed help with what she asked for not with the hope of getting anything in return, but because I think it is our Christian duty to help those in need if we can. She did offer that she would return some of my help, although up into now she hasn’t. I don’t say this  out of any bad feeling, indeed I am glad that I was able to help her and would do it again and this is actually the idea. God has made us weak like jars of clay, which break easily, because when they break the light from within shines out.
A great example of this is given by Gideon in Judges 7. He has some self confidence issues, considering himself the least in his family, which is the weakest in Manasseh (Judges 6:15) and doesn’t think for a moment that he will be able to save Israel from the Midianites. However, God leads him to form an army of 32,000 men to fight against the mighty Midianite army of 135,000. Not good odds by any stretch of the imagination. However, God challenges Gideon to whittle the army down, first by sending home those who are afraid and then those who kneel down to drink water. Thus, Gideon ends up with only 300 men to fight a huge army.
Humanly speaking there is no chance, however by trusting in the Lord’s leading and doing something risky by going down into the Midianite camp, Gideon discovers that through a dream had by a Midianite soldier, God has begun to put fear into the Midianites before Gideon. Inspired by this, Gideon leads his men to encircle the Midianite camp, and with little more than a trumpet and clay jay with a burning torch inside each, they cause havoc in the Midianite camp by smashing the jars, blowing the trumpets and shouting, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon’. The Midianites end up turning on one another and defeating their own army.
This was a great victory and the key is that it was all to God’s glory. There was no way Gideon and his tiny army could have won a battle, if it wasn’t for the miraculous way God worked.
Likewise then in our lives, although we as human beings are weak outside like jars of clay, the main thing is that God’s light should be shinning inside because it is this that will bring the victory. Furthermore, God has made us fragile because the more we break, the more of His light shines out from inside!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay