Sometimes I Feel LUMPY!

[ServinGsus]

There are days when I just feel like I'm a lump of clay: bumpy, pretty useless, and just a big 'ole mess. I look in the mirror and I think, "What am I doing?" I wonder at my life, seeing the faults and failures and missed opportunities. When those days come, it's incredibly easy to want to give up. However, I've learned something very important: My life is a lump of clay in the hands of the loving, faithful Potter. That means that I'm not just a useless lump, but rather a lump chock full of potential.

Sometimes I get ahead of God and begin to make my own plans. I begin to petition Him for what I think is best for my life. I start to design my own future, with very good ideas. Then it happens; I realize that my good is nothing in light of His great. Sometimes I wonder if God is watching me and shaking His head, smiling with exasperation and love, and wondering when I'll trust Him enough to just pray, "Thy will be done." The nation of Israel did that and God shared with them through the prophet Jeremiah just what a loving Father does when that happens:

He said, ² “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.”
³ So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel.
⁴ But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he
crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. ⁵ Then the Lord
gave me this message: ⁶ “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter
has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. ~Jeremiah 18:2-6

Sometimes God has to take us up, pound us down, and reshape us for His purpose. There are times I've made myself into a plate when God wants me to be a pitcher, I'm sure. Or times that I've just taken my life in my own hands, gotten knocked around, and been chipped or even shattered. But the Potter scoops me up, pounds me out, and lovingly reshapes me for His delight. Sometimes when I hit my point of desperation, God begins to do this work and I actually question Him. I begin to think, "Are you sure this is what You want to do? Wouldn't such-and-such be a better idea?" In my pride, I am blinded to the folly of questioning my Creator, the foolishness of doubting His wisdom and love.

Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? ~Isaiah 29:16b

Really, can the pottery every know better what it's purpose is than the potter who made it? How silly of us! It has to be understood that as the clay, we are merely a vessel made by One who knows so much more than we. I take great comfort in that truth. I love that I am not responsible for making all of the choices that impact my life and the lives of those in my family; there is a loving Potter who knows what He wants us to be and I just need to trust Him to shape us all. I need to stop jumping off of the Potter's wheel, to stop hiding when I know He needs to re-shape me and pummel out my rebellion and fears with loving hands, to stop being fearful of what I might turn out to be. There is an intrinsic need in each of us to connect with Who made us, and yet still we hide from His hands when He reaches to mold us. It's time to start loving the process, even the painful parts. To stop disparaging yourself when you look in the mirror, and begin to understand the amazing potential of every life that is submitted to the Potter.

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand. ~Isaiah 64:8

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[goldenraysofsun]

Mar. 24, 2009 at 12:59 AM

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