When I was about four or five years old, my family visited my aunt Susan. She had recently had a litter of puppies, and we wanted to check them out. They were so small and fragile; I hadn’t been around anything like that before. When my aunt picked up a tiny puppy and placed it in my arms, I didn’t know how to handle it. The puppy squirmed a little and then made a sudden movement. Reacting instinctively, I dropped the puppy. It squeaked, and I began to cry.
My memories after that moment are pretty fuzzy. For a long time, I believed that the fall had killed the puppy. I’m not sure what happened, but from that moment on, I thought I shouldn’t handle delicate things. This belief continued until I had children of my own, and I was forced to hold them. I soon realized that babies are pretty resilient, and my drop probably didn’t harm that puppy. (And just to clarify, I never dropped my kids.)
In moments of ministry, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the responsibility. I feel incapable of handling delicate matters, fearing that I might “drop” them and cause harm to someone. I feel unworthy of conveying the importance and significance of the gospel message. It’s as if someone handed me a squirming puppy and said, “Don’t drop it.” I often feel inadequate to carry the message for fear that I will mess it up.
The problem with my thought process is that I mistakenly believe I have complete control over the situation. When we participate in God’s plan, we are not the primary agents—the situation is handled by something far greater than us.
Romans 10:13-17 – “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
The power of this passage lies not in the person delivering the message; they are merely the feet. The faith that leads to conversion is not dependent on eloquent speakers or well-crafted rhetoric, but simply on hearing the message about Christ. It is the life and actions of Christ that make the difference, not the one who relays it. This means I can clumsily navigate a conversation, but as long as I share the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, I have carried the message.
Paul’s words to the Christians in Corinth bring me comfort when I feel lost in my inadequacies. He reminds them that it is not what is on the outside that matters, but what is within us.
2 Corinthians 4:5-7 – “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
This entire passage emphasizes the truth that it is not us, but what is inside us that matters. We are like fragile clay jars, and the power is most evident when the jars are broken. Trying to be an unshakable, unbreakable messenger is not what is important; the light shines best through a broken vessel. Paul further illustrates that it is through our deaths that the light shines the brightest. We might feel that the burden of sharing the gospel is too heavy or delicate, but that weight is not ours to carry. It rests in the hands of someone who never fails, and we can rely on His Word and His Power.