Fragile pottery

This past Saturday i had sat down to watch the LSU game, had my hat on, my home white jersey and a comfortable spot on the love seat so that i can catch every blessed minute of my beloved Tiger's 2006 national TV debut. It was going pretty well, even though we had to settle for a field goal on the first drive, but now the defense was at work when we heard it...a small but noticeable sound from around the computer desk. Brigitte called out to Caleb and asked what that noise was, since we knew he was the one in there, to which he responded with a "Something broke"...not good news.

I went in and found Caleb sitting on the office chair looking at a small piece of pottery, a little clay pot i brought back from my mission trip in Honduras in college. Now, this was not just any souvenir, but my ONLY souvenir from my trip there since i went there totally on faith and with NO MONEY on me at all. This little pot was given to each member of our team from the pastor of the little Baptist church in Gracias Lempira, Honduras that we worked with. Not a good moment for me, in fact, i told Brig to deal with Caleb while i cleaned up the remains of what seemed like my memories at the moment.

But while cleaning the pieces up God reminded me that this was just a little clay pot, it was bound to break at some point any way. It was broken by a little boy, and that is what little boys do, they break things...but this was not just any little boy, it was MY little boy. So i finished sweeping up the pieces and went into Caleb's room to talk to him.

He's only 5, so i'm not sure how much of this he really understood, but i let him know that what he broke was really special to me...but not as special to me as he was and that nothing can change that because our relationship as father and son was most important to me.

Let's go back 5 years now...9/11/01. On that day a hand full of Muslims with a deep, dark hatred for the US and our way of life decided to take fate into their own hands and flew three planes into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon...one more was probably headed for the Capital if it weren't for the brave passengers aboard flight 93 which crashed into a field in PA. On that day the great and mighty US was nothing more than a little clay pottery pot, put together by the hands of man and due to probably break at some point. And that is what we did, we fell and we were broken...not our greatest moment by any stretch of the imagination, and a moment that will by planted firmly into our minds for generations to come.

And in the background is God, our Father, the true potter who i do believe wants us to see that what is most important is His relationship with us.

It has nothing to do with religion...religious people were flying the planes that day. Nor does it have anything to do with church attendance which spiked in the weeks after 9/11 only to return to the status quo by January 2002. It didn't even have anything to do with what we can do, and i still believe that we are the most powerful country on the face of this earth...but even that couldn't save us on that day.

Our only source of hope comes to us in a relationship with God...through Jesus Christ alone. Jesus said in John 17:3, "Now this is eternal life, to know the one true God and Jesus Christ who He sent." Our source of strength doesn't come to us in high rise towers made of clay and earth, but in a humbled heart and bended knee when we "humble our selves in the sight of the Lord" so that "he will lift us up" (James 4:10).

God has blessed America, i really do believe that. And i do believe that God will be willing to bless America again if we were to humble ourselves, pray and seek His face, and turn to Him (not just in word or theory, but in reality). He has promised to heal our land, and He will heal our land based on His word (2 Chron. 7:14).

I believe it has got to start with the church though...the church HAS GOT TO BE THE CHURCH AGAIN! Not just a social club where the most "powerful" decide what takes place. We need to be a living organism like what we see in Acts 2 that is driven by a purpose, inspired by a vision and empowered and lead by the Spirit of God. The Church of Jesus Christ in the United States is a sleeping giant...and i think it is time to wake that giant up!