Practice What You Preach

There's a story called "Along the Path" by an unknown author that describes two pots designed to carry water. One pot is perfect and holds all the water that it's supposed to carry. The other pot is cracked and leaks out half of its water on the way back from the stream. The water bearer realizes this failure and plants flower seeds along the cracked pot's side of the path. Each day, the cracked pot waters the seeds until beautiful flowers grow.

I shared this story with the youth this week and told them about my own failures - specifically related to being social and the small talk of getting to know people. Blame my introversion, or lack of social graces, or whatever, but I find it most challenging when I'm supposed to be in random conversation...especially with 12-17 year olds...especially since I'm an alien from another planet being from urban Ontario. Youth is not my area of expertise. Why I have been placed in the position of leader for CGC's youth is something only God understands. Sure, I have a heart for them to love Jesus and have a dedicated, life-transformative relationship with Him and sure, I can teach and I love leading devotions and such, but I'm not a social person.

I shared with the youth my life verse, 2 Corinthians 9:12, where God says to a struggling Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you; my power is made perfect in weakness." I told the youth straight up about my failure, where I feel I don't measure up to what is expected of me, where I don't carry the amount of water that I'm designed to carry. They then broke into partners to talk about their own perceived failures and what they thought about the story and the verse - even if they didn't really believe it.

It's funny - God gave me some good conversations with a few of the youth through this, which made my day. It's funny - God sometimes touches us and reminds us of exactly what we need to remember as we teach others a lesson. It's funny - God always works through our weaknesses and who knows the flowers that are able to grow because of it.