Before you start thinking ahead of me, this is not a blog about the plight of my teenage epidermal state leading to a misprint in my title. Perhaps you are thinking surely he meant cracks in my faith. Rest assured I only write what God reveals to my heart. I want to intentionally write what He lays at my fingers. Nothing goes on here by accident.

Picture if you will, a remote village where the only running water is the water that flows back and forth in a pitcher carried by one of the children. It is close to suppertime so the mother asks her teenage son to run and get some water. Without a second thought, the child grabs the first available vase and darts off to the local watering hole. As he begins to fill the pitcher he notices there is a small fracture down the middle. "Too late to run back and get another vase, this one will have to do," he mutters to himself. His watering vase full he brings the pitcher to his head and begins his journey home. It sure is hot this afternoon. The cool water running down his face from the pitcher offers relief from the heat so perhaps the crack is not too bad after all. By the time the lad reaches home he only has a portion of the intended water necessary for the evening meal. The crack now looms larger than what he originally thought.
    
As a Christian, our life is to be a vase, pouring out blessings toward others as we receive blessings from the Lord. for the unbeliever there is a hole in the bottom of the vase where any blessing from God pours right on through and hits dry ground until God reaches out with His Spirit and touches the unbeliever allowing Christ to fill that void. Then He begins to work on the cracks within the vase of that believer's life.

Over time, God's children begin to bless others and we tend to become oblivious to the cracks in our own vase and some of the blessing that we could be pouring out gets lost. We are quick to find the cracks in everybody else's vase but never step back enough to find our own cracks. Cracks such as selfishness, anger, fear, faithlessness, and the one that you are thinking of now will do.
    
I think we can all agree that we want to be a blessing to others, especially those of us in the music ministry. After all, if we are not a blessing, then what's the point? However, along the way, the blessing to others may get lost through the cracks in our earthen vases.

Having basically been unemployed the past seven months, God has used this time to reveal some cracks in my vase. I don't want to go through this time and learn nothing so I began to ask God to reveal places where I may have, or could have, given Satan to enter into my life. I was not prepared for the revelation that God unfolded.

As I was applying for jobs and then follow through with the subsequent interview process, I found myself asking friends, family and my wonderful Sunday School family to pray that I might obtain that job. Don't get me wrong, it is fine to ask blessing from the Almighty. Remember though, my prayer was that God would reveal places in my life (cracks in my vase) and this one revealed a split. It recently occurred to me that, as this latest job became available and is now down to one other candidate and myself that...there is another candidate for this position. I know nothing about him or his situation. Is he single or does he have a family? Does he already have a job and is simply looking to better his position? Does he need the job as badly as I do? Does he have a team of prayer warriors as large as mine? What does God do in this case, the most prayer warriors wins?

Do you see where I am going? God began to reveal to me a full blown crevice of selfishness in the my vase. It's a crack that if God does not mend, will cause me to lose blessing and effectiveness for my part of the ministry with Ransomed. I confessed to God my selfishness and began praying for this other candidate. How will God answer this? I have no idea, but I have at least learned something through the process. It goes something like this:

Lord, mend the cracks in my vase
I want to be a blessing to others.
don't let the sin in my life
Be a hindrance for another.
May your loving grace be a balm
To cleanse the error of my way
Lord, mend the cracks in my vase
So I can be a blessing today.

Lee Berry