““For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 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. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.”

2 Corinthians 4:6-10

I’ve been looking at the flower bed filled with withered Brown Eyed Susan’s all week with the intention of pruning them for the winter. So today, as I went out to trim them back, there was this little butterfly feasting on the heart of the “dead” flower. I couldn’t bear the thought of cutting down the flowers then – even though they are not very attractive to the eye – because apparently, they are still useful and attractive to those who depend on it for life.

And I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been struggling all week with what to write today. In light of what all is happening in our country with the division, the hate, the slander, and the perceived darkness, I was not finding many hopeful things to say. But this feasting little butterfly reminded me that even with our broken hearts, we always have a supernatural joy and a Divine Power to help us bring riches and blessings to others. We have the Light that extinguishes the darkness if we are willing to let it shine.

But our humanity, our jars of clay, can make us feel defeated in our purpose and even make us feel like we should just give up. And before we know it our fears and insecurities have us spiraling down a rabbit trail that breaks our confidence of Whose we are and what we are called to do.

The devil knows that if he can get even just a toe hold on our hearts in our most vulnerable times, then he can begin to shatter the jar that holds our greatest treasure – the Light and Power of Jesus. We may feel like we are at the end of our rope but Paul reminds us in the Scripture above, that we are never at the end of our Hope!

And that is why we never give up! Even when there’s division all around and all we feel is despair, we can find joy in the Light that holds us all together. We can stand tall with confidence instead of doubt. We can be determined instead of deterred. We can share Life, even when we are emotionally dead.

So just as the heart of my dead flower was still providing rich blessings to my beautiful butterfly, we can still provide the precious blessings of God’s Light, God’s Spirit, and God’s Truth- even from the shattered places in our hearts. We can do this because we are simply jars of clay who are enlightened with the treasures of Jesus.

I pray today that we can let our light shine brighter than ever before. Even if we don’t feel like it. Even if we’d rather slide under a rock and hide from the heinousness of this world. May your light shine through the cracks, through the chips, through the scars, and through the fragments, ultimately demonstrating the Power of the Treasure that holds all the brokenness together. There is still work to be done out there. And we are still useful! The Light still shines, even through the cracks.

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT

#SaturdaySoulSearch