Just a Bunch of Crackpots!

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 NLT
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.

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

John 17:15 -18 (Jesus prayed) “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

Reflection:

2020 has been quite a year. My guess is that most of us never imagined at the beginning of this year that it would carry so much social and political unrest.
Our country seems to be divided right down the middle. I was amazed that less than 1% decided this election in so many states. The division during this election season has generated more harsh speech toward those on opposing sides of the political spectrum than at any other time in of our lives. Each side somehow believing the other to be a bunch of “crackpots,” being impaired in their thinking!

Crackpots! It is a rather funny expression, but one that I would like to explore as the basis for this devotional. The expression crackpot could easily sound like a modern description related to drugs, primarily because crack and pot are both slang words for different drugs. Maybe some would even accuse those with contrary views as being on drugs! Yet the expression is actually quite old. It developed all the way back from the 1600’s from the combination of cracked, meaning broken, and pot, being slang for your head. Therefore, crackpot crept into our vernacular speech as another way to say someone was impaired in their thinking.
This might sound silly, but I think I would like to be known as a crackpot. Why? Well, if you re-read these verses listed above a few more times and slowly enough, you will catch my meaning, and maybe what Jesus and the Apostle Paul were saying as well.

Let me bullet point these verses for you in a few statements:

There is darkness in this world, but the light has come.
Jesus, the light, has come to shine in this darkness, especially the darkness of our own hearts.
We carry this sanctifying light, or revelation of Jesus in our lives, as illustrated by Paul’s use of clay pots.
These clay pots are nothing special, but they can carry the light and power of Jesus.
As an earthen pot, live in such a way as to let the light shine out before men so that they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.

I love how J.D. Walt describes the sanctifying work of the word of God in our lives and how this light is to shine out of us in this prayer.

“Lord, make me transcendentally translucent with the brightness of the Holy Spirit in a way that the Light of God can shine in and through me with the fiery and brilliant radiance of Jesus—through the totality of who I am as an ordinary human being.”

Even though we may have broken places that are like cracks in our lives, may we shine Jesus within these earthen vessels. Remember that those cracks of pain, injury and general wear and tear in our lives are the places that are illuminated when the Holy Spirit fills us and becomes a beautiful picture of a shining cracked pot. May we carry this shining treasure so that His all surpassing glory might be revealed in us into this world, no matter what happens in the rest of 2020, or who may win the next election.

God bless you…from one crackpot to another. May we shine Jesus, the light of this world!

David

Prayer: “Lord, make me transcendentally translucent with the brightness of the Holy Spirit in a way that the Light of God can shine in and through me with the fiery and brilliant radiance of Jesus—through the totality of who I am as an ordinary human being.” AMEN.