Leaving things Behind!
During our last visit out of Greece for David to preach, we had a very full program, to make sure we were at one service for 10 am in the morning and another on the opposite side of the country for 4 pm.
The night before, I carefully packed everything we would need, including food & coffee for us to have along the journey between the two services.
Off we went in good time and had a uneventful pleasant journey until about 30 minutes from the border, when it suddenly dawned on me with horrors that our passports were still at home. Normally, I always carried them with us, but because we had used a backpack for a recent flight, they were still in that backpack. Wow, shock, and there was nothing else for it but to turn back and get them! Two hours to return home and another two just to get back where we were at the time of discovery!!!
The Bible reading for that morning had been “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” [2 Corinthians 4:7]. Jars of clay are cups and bowls and at that moment, I felt like the most chipped and flawed vessel that ever was! David already had a huge responsibility to drive many kilometers and still be fresh, to pass on God”s Word to two different congregations, so how did I not even give a thought to the fact that we needed passports to go to another country!!
But the message of that verse is ‚Äì “Don”t quit just because we are earthen vessels, chipped and flawed, as He isn”t finished with us yet!” Yes, we make mistakes, some we find out the reason for and others we may never know, but there is a purpose in all we do when we walk His way.
Now I don”t fully know the reason for this happening, and I still don”t relish the fact that David had to drive over 800 kilometers to preach, or that he missed the most of his first service, but I just have to trust the Lord with these things.
Still, it was on this day, that David was told, “the obvious joy he shows in His Christian life, even when things don”t always go according to plan, was what turned this man towards Jesus, and what makes him and his family strive to be more like Jesus every day.”
People don”t need to see us as perfect examples, but as joyful examples of imperfect sinners, saved by Perfect Grace! ” Treasures in earthen vessels!
Leaving things behind is not always bad!! In John 4, the woman at the Well when she found the Savior was so excited she left her water pots behind and went to tell others all that had happened to her. [28-29] She wasn”t thirsty any longer, but overflowing with the water of life which Christ had given her. When we come to Jesus, we will want to leave behind the things that hinder us from walking with the Lord. The friends who would hold us back from following, the sins, which brought no real satisfaction anyway!
When Jesus called Peter and Andrew, they willingly left their nets and followed Him. [Matthew 4:18-20] and later in the same chapter, James and John left their father, as well as their business, at the call of the Master. Let us be willing to lay aside or leave behind whatever would hold us back from doing His Will or answering His call, but let us be willing to show the cracks and the chips, which He seals up, as He fills us to overflowing with His joy, that others will want to know the Way to find the Lord in a more personal way.