Broken pots

Over the summer my sister gifted me with a coffee cup. The cup design is called "Somayaki" and is a type of traditional Japanese pottery. Somayaki is prized for it's high end tea cups and teapots. I know this from experience because I grew up with this pottery. While a new Somayaki coffee cup will set you back $50.00, my sister picked this one up in a flea market for $5. Well, today I accidentally dropped my cup in the sink while washing it and the handle broken into several pieces. Sad, I know. While I could glue the handle back together it will never be something useable, only decorative. It got me thinking about the things in our lives that have since run their course and no longer serve their original purpose. Sometimes we keep them for sentimental or ornamental reasons. Sometimes we simply keep them because we've long since grown accustomed to them. I don't know about you but these days I find myself thinking "less is more." Maybe its the economy or even maturity, but I've been divesting myself of a lot of the things I've accumulated over the years. Some I've sold, others I've simply given away. I think this divesting is healthy and its helping me keep my focus on what's most important. I think at some level this is true for the church and maybe even for the doing of theology (how we think and talk about God). When things run their course its a healthy thing to allow them to fall by the wayside and instead focus on what's most important. Some of the things I was taught early on in my faith journey simply don't hold water anymore and I've learned to let them go. Others have had to evolve, as I processed them through my life experience. I hope that as I continue to mature in my faith, I will be able to focus on what's most important and have the grace to let go of what isn't. I suspect this is Jesus' hope for his church as well.