The Cracked Pot

By Andrew Mayende

Take a moment and do a candid reflection of yourself. Do you think you are perfect in any way or imperfect as a human being? Well, worry not for you don’t have to be perfect to shine in your set goals and to achieve the cream of success in life as you may desire.

We live in a society that constantly reminds us of our fla  ws and regularly takes it upon itself to falsely whisper to us that we cannot make it. In this kind of set-up, embracing our imperfections, being confident in ourselves and consistently pushing ourselves towards the realization of our goals in life becomes a daunting task.

You should realize that a bird cannot be compared to a fish based on their swimming skills. Everyone is uniquely created by God with a special purpose in life. With this in mind, you have to realize that God is fully in charge of everything and therefore you do not have to be perfect in any way to fulfill God’s purpose in your life.

I recently read an ancient Chinese folklore about how imperfections can eventually turn to be a beautiful blessing. The narrative was about a cracked pot.

A certain Chinese water bearer, in the course of her duties had two water pots. The pots hung on each end of a pole that she used for carrying them across her neck. After carrying water for some time, one pot developed a crack on its side whereas the other was remained in perfect shape.

This meant that one pot would deliver all the water in it while the other would deliver slightly close to half of its quantity. One particular day, after a long and tiring walk form the stream, as usual the perfect container had all its water while cracked pot had half of its quantity.

The pot that had no crack was in bounds of joy for its accomplishments whereas the cracked pot felt embarrassed by its imperfection since it only accomplished a fraction of its desired target.

Two years down the line, it told the water bearer of how ashamed it was since the crack had always caused water to leak. With a smile the water bearer replied, “Haven’t you noticed that there are beautiful flowers only on your side of the foot path but not on the other pot’s side?

“That’s to confirm that I’ve always known about your leaking weak point. I decided to plant seeds on your side and you religiously watered them every day on our way back to the house from the water point.”

“For the past two years I’ve plucked the beautiful flowers from the path to decorate the table. Without you having a crack, I wouldn’t have these amazingly beautiful flowers to decorate the house.” The cracked pot was all in tears of joy and amazement.

Keep shining no matter what people say, keep soaring higher and higher!