Earthen Vessels-An Average Servant

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord,
and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,”
is the One who has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
that the surpassing greatness of the power
may be of God and not from ourselves...
2Cor. 4:5 -7

I'm an average bond servant. What I mean is, if a bond servant is one who serves willingly, selflessly and not under compulsion, for Christ's sake, then my performance today is, at best, average. I would think that I could manage to be a shining example of at least a lowly bond servant, but really, I'm average. Today, probably less than.

I am of dirt. He is Light, Glory, Surpassing Greatness and Power. I get the whole contrast thing, but today I'm just not liking it. I'm irritated by both the contrast--I want to be more like Him and less like me!-- and the fact that I'm not succeeding in reasoning myself out of my emotions. I should be glad to highlight His brilliance by my earthiness--but the earthiness is winning the day and I think it sucks.

If Jesus is the light that shines in me then I am the darkness He is shining out of. He is the positive and I the negative. Well, this is certainly evident this morning! :) Usually I walk around more like twilight, occasionally I even shine like mid-day, but today seems like midnight. Twilight's sounding real good today. It is a useful feeling, it should help me appreciate my 'normal' state, but unpleasant nonetheless. At the very least I am thankful that most days don't feel like midnight. So what's the difference today?

A noticeable stack of small and medium-sized failures, internal and external, unmet desires and relentless pressures, all allowed by God, to remind me of my fallen-ness. NEWS FLASH: I have NOT arrived. I probably am not even in the building. So, my challenge today is to lay hold of what makes most days so much better: Jesus. If yesterday was better it was not because of my amazing spirituality but because I let His truth reign in my heart. There is only one thing to be done on a day like today, besides take a nap, and that is to camp out on what is true and offer sacrifices of praise because He is worthy. (Um, that's two things--but, there you have it, er, them.)

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Heb. 13:15-16