Motivation to Embrace Your Brokenness

It is too easy for ministry leaders to become discouraged by our weaknesses. Daily we are brought face to face with deep needs – spiritual, physical, financial, relational – and often it is difficult to see much progress in meeting those needs. Or we meet one need and another one quickly springs up in its place, an ongoing game of whack-a-mole. We feel keenly the ways we fall short – physical and mental fatigue, not enough hours in the day, insufficient wisdom for the wide variety of difficult situations. We often beat ourselves up for not having “what it takes,” and of course we have Satan who takes great delight in ruthlessly accusing and taunting us.

If you find yourself discouraged by your weaknesses, you will find great hope in  Dave Harvey’s book The Clay Pot Conspiracy: God’s Plan to Use Weakness in Leaders.

The title comes from II Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

Chapter 1 opens with the story of a shepherd boy who went after one of his lambs that wandered away. He ended up at the mouth of a cave and, as boys often do, picked up a rock and hurled it, far into the darkness. He heard an unexpected sound - shattering. Intrigued, he clamored into the back of the cave and discovered a collection of clay pots, several containing what we now call the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Portions of God’s holy Word inscribed on parchment, rolled up, and stored in pots. Treasure in jars of clay.

Paul, however, in II Cor. 4:7 wasn’t referring to the jars containing the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was talking about us! We are the jars of clay, and the treasure is the gospel – the good news - of God’s grace.

Dave Harvey takes the analogy a bit further. He points out that it was only the throwing of the stone and breaking of the pot that revealed the treasure inside.

Similarly, our fragile jars of clay shatter when stones are thrown at us, in the form of physical illness, mental distress, family turmoil, betrayal, slander, church conflict, and other needs that expose our frailties. But it is the breaking that reveals the treasure, demonstrating to all around us that, not just in spite of but because of and through our persistent weakness, God’s power, His grace, and His glory shine.

In chapter 2, "Make Death Produce Life," Harvey says, "If dependence upon God is the point, weakness becomes an asset. Weakness is the space where reliance is built and grace is delivered. Your burdens and pain are not obstacles to resilience. They're the means of producing it. God reconstitutes the leader's weakness for our good and his glory. It's all part of God's conspiracy, where 'suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope' (Romans 5:3-4). God breaks the pot to shape the soul."

Embracing the clay pot conspiracy enables me to not push back against my brokenness and wallow in self-condemnation but to “boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (II Cor. 12:9-10).

I will read this book again and again. I hope you will too!

A few favorite quotes from this little book:

“Leadership was never about exalting our strengths. God’s plan was always to deliver his strength through our weaknesses.”

“Your suffering is not an obstacle to resilience; it’s designed to produce the strength to help you finish well.”

“The largest threat to our resilience lies not in what’s been done to us by others, but in forgetting what’s been done for us by Christ.”

“Ministry becomes a gospel reenactment in the life of the leader where God puts us through little ‘deaths’ so that gospel life might flow.”

“Leaders, don’t begrudge the nails that pin you to the cross. Don’t despise the ‘death sentences’ hanging over you. From the ashes of your brokenness, God is kindling the fires of hope and deliverance. Though it baffles the mind, these wounds are building the resilience you seek.”

“One does not become a theologian by knowing a lot about God; one becomes a theologian by suffering the torments and feeling the weakness which union with Christ must inevitably bring in its wake.” (quoting Carl Trueman)