Jars of Clay

"But we have this treasure in jars of clayT)"> to show that this all-surpassing power is from GodU)"> and not from us."
~2 Corinthians 4:7~
Just a short six and a half years ago my life was very, very different. I was a senior in college and living a life for me. I had grown up in church and continued to go most Sundays all through college. I even served on most Sunday mornings in the children's department. From the looks of it I was a good Christian girl. But that image mostly stopped after I walked out of the church doors on a Sunday morning. The rest of the week was mine and I chose to live it however I saw fit.
Well since my life plan wasn't going according to plan, I decided to be "called" to another church. {:The only real reason I went was because there were more young people and in my mind that equated to me finding a husband there.:} Well, my life is proof that God can take your selfish desires and use them to transform your life. I started going to church there on a weekly basis and sat by myself every week in the back of the room. But week after week I was feeling something I had never felt before. I was feeling God speak and touch my heart. I would cry during worship and didn't really understand why. I would find myself thinking about messages all through the week. It was…weird.
Even though God was doing something in my heart, I still felt like an outsider at this church. I didn't know anyone. I'm a bit reserved when I don't know anyone, so it wasn't like me to just go up and introduce myself to strangers. One Sunday I felt like God was asking me to get involved with their youth ministry as a leader. In my seat I gave God a silent, but stern NO. Well, who would have guessed it, but one of the few people I knew at the church came up to me after service and said "Hey, I want to introduce you to Danny." Danny just so happened to be the youth pastor. God was becoming quite persistent.
He invited me to come check out youth that Wednesday, and it wasn't long before I instantly had a group of friends and a group of young people I was passionate about leading and being a role model for. Being surrounded by these other leaders changed everything. They were sold out to God. They lived for him in and out of the church, yet they were normal. I had never really seen something like this. I wanted what they had and I followed their example until it become "normal" for me too.
When I was coming to church I felt God, but when I started serving in the church, I started to act on all the things God was doing within me. It was when I decided to plant myself in His house that I really began to grow. {:That shouldn't have surprised me. I mean it is Biblical after all, but it's crazy how you can hear things for years but you don't fully accept them until you experience them:}
God took this ordinary jar of clay, me, and filled it with a precious message that has forever changed my life. I am ordinary. My life is ordinary, but I carry something so precious and valuable within me and you can too.
God doesn't care who you are or where you have been or even how bad off you are in this moment. He just wants you. He wants you to put your trust into something you have never seen before so he can show you the evidence of His reality through your life.
It's not fancy, it's just jars of clay, with the most precious, all-surpasing power within. And it's yours if you'll take it.