Part of the astonishing truth of the gospel is this: God shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of Jesus into our hearts (II Corinthians 4:6). What does that mean? It means we are bearers of the light of God. It means we are the light of the world, as Jesus said (Matthew 5:14) and as Paul echoed (Philippians 2:15).

But this glory is carried in our ordinary human lives. These ordinary human lives we live, with their ordinary troubles and ordinary suffering, are the basis on which we can offer to others in their afflictions, because of the way that God has consoled us in the midst of our afflictions (II Corinthians 1:3-4). To help us see what it’s like, Paul uses the metaphor of putting a great treasure in a plain earthenware pot (4:7). The reason “we are afflicted in every way” (4:8) is this: so that anyone can see that “this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (4:7). Paul then offers a list of several ways in which the frailty of the human vessel is displayed: we are “perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (4:8-9).

To say that we are “persecuted” and “struck down” indicates that we are under attack and sometimes killed for our faith. And when it is not that severe – when we are merely “perplexed” because we don’t have answers to explain why life is so hard – even then the raggedness of our existence is constantly on display: in our weakness and in our suffering, and indeed in our illnesses and in our sins. We just don’t look much like angels or saints or superheroes, victorious over all the trials of life. We mostly look ordinary: happy some of the time, successful some of the time, failing some of the time, broken-hearted some of the time.

Here’s the thing: the humanness of our ordinary lives is part of the testimony. The light of Jesus shines within us, but it’s not because we are so good, so obedient, or so worthy. It’s simply because the Lord is gracious. Because the splendor of God contrasts so much with the humanness of our ordinary lives, whenever anyone sees the radiance of God’s presence within us, it gives them the chance to recognize that it really is coming from God, since it obviously cannot be coming from us.

* * * * *

Help us not to be afraid of our brokenness, O Lord; teach us instead to recognize that it will be in our frailty that the world can see how your gracious power is sufficient to sustain us amidst all the trials and struggles we face from day to day.