THE CRACKED POT

There was once a servant water bearer who had two pots tied to a wooden bar, which he used to hang on his shoulder to supply water to his master from a stream down the hilly house. The pot on the left side is perfect and in good shape fulfilling its purpose effectively, whereas the one on the right is cracked and leaks water right from the stream up to the master’s house.

For two years, the water bearer kept using those two pots just the way they were, with the perfect pot delivering full quantity of water and the cracked one delivering just half. Hence for two good years, the water bearer could only deliver one and half pot of water to his master on every trip he made to the stream instead of  two whole pots which ought to be some sort of reward for his effort of shouldering two pots.

One fateful day, the cracked pot got worried and apologized to the water bearer, expressing how sorry it was for the imperfection that has marred its being, for leaking water from the stream up to the master’s house and for not delivering efficiently but just half of the quantity it was meant to. (You can at least imagine that kind of broken and heartfelt moment). However the response of the water bearer was somehow stunning. The water bearer responded to the cracked pot and said: “I know you are cracked and imperfect, I know you leak and deliver only half of what you are supposed  to, yet I chose to use you just the way you are. When going to the stream tomorrow, I want you to notice all the beautiful flowers that are blooming on the side you leak, I have taken advantage of your brokenness and imperfection to plant those flowers, and your leaking is the only reason why they are living today, and it is from those flowers that I use to adorn my master’s house”

The following day, on his way to the stream, the cracked pot took notice of all the beautiful flowers blooming on its own side where it usually leaks, yet the pot went on to apologize to the water bearer for delivering half. The question worth asking at this point should be: “Is there any consolation or word of assurance or approval that the water bearer needed to say any longer to make the cracked pot feel accepted and comfortable in its own skin?”

Many times, we all have played the cracked pot at one point or the other in our lives. Feeling less, inadequate, insufficient and having this sense of not measuring up. It could be that our scars are obvious, our imperfections conspicuous and the crack in us well situated for all and sundry to see. Hence, whenever you are up to do something noble, these variables fight you and beat you down to the point that you give up and back out even before making your first attempt. (I have walked down this road before).

We all have our flaws, flops, and flounders, and like that cracked pot, despite words of assurance and affirmation from its owner, we often feel incompetent, insufficient and crappy with the cracks around. I know as your read through these words, you may be taking a cursory look at your life, pointing out all those cracks and thinking out loud with words such as: “This guy has no idea how it feels”, “If only he can walk a mile in my shoes”. I am glad to tell you that I have my fair share of imperfection as well, the battle rages every day.

Now let us quit playing the cracked pot game and look at our lives from the bearer’s perspective a bit. The bearer on noticing the crack on the pot and the obvious daily leakage would have sought for a solution of either replacing the pot with a more perfect one or at least finding a way of patching the crack up: at least this would have been the most reasonable and logical thing to do - what we call common sense today.  However, the pot bearer saw beyond the physical, saw the potential behind the crack and the opportunity in the daily leakages resulting from the crack and put it to good use.  

To the cracked pot, it was living and performing below expectation by delivering just half, but to the bearer, it was giving life to others. I see something playing in the life of the cracked pot in which all of us at one point or the other in our lives had fallen prey to it – COMPARISON. It was because the cracked pot kept comparing itself with the perfect pot that it woes increased daily. It was not comfortable in its own skin hence it felt less of a pot. We are no different from this cracked pot, comparison has done us more harm than good, it blindfolds us from those benefiting from our seeming imperfections and steals the contentment of being just us in our own skin.

Regardless of our different cracks, we all are God’s masterpieces, and we carry in us a treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing glory will be not unto us but to Him.  In God’s eyes and hands therefore, there is no wastage, no imperfection is imperfect, no inadequacy is inadequate and every water leaking from our seeming cracks refreshes others in ways we cannot imagine.  So launch out this day, appreciate God for who you are and especially for your cracks, and let Him accomplish that which only Him can through and in you, and whenever you have prayed all you know how to pray, and he is not taking away or patching all the cracks in your life trust Him, H knows what He’s up to.

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