We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
Who would have thought these verses would have given me so much trouble? Well actually, I wouldn’t have had any trouble had I not been so hard pressed on every side for not coming up with a Catch over these seemingly simple verses, perplexed by not understanding why, persecuted by myself over my inability to get over this barrier, and struck down by a sense of utter failure.
In spite of that, I can say that, because of Christ in me, I haven’t been crushed; nor have I lost all hope; the Lord has not abandoned me; and I’m still here.
Pressures, perplexities, persecutions and calamities like these are common to us all, Christians or not, but going through them will show up what we are made of, or more importantly, who we have, or don’t have, inside.
We are all vessels created as human beings to hold something. Without that something, we are merely empty. Nothing in and of ourselves; only something when we contain what we were made for, and we were made to contain the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. This is what Paul calls the treasure (2 Corinthians 4:7) — the treasure in a common, ordinary clay pot made from the dust of the earth. My clay pot … your clay pot. Nothing, unless it is filled, but when it is filled with the treasure, we can and will go through anything, and everything, and God will make something of it.
It’s not about us, it’s about what we have inside.
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