Thoughts On Getting Shaped

I am an abject failure at doing pottery. There where only two or three times in my life when I had to be physically forced to sit down at a wheel with a clump of wet, mushy, nasty clay and attempt to form something, well, something actually worth looking at. Maybe I had too much sensation in my fingers: you know, the goo feeling? Maybe I just couldn't get around the fact that my teacher had really long hair, cloudy eyes, and said "Maaaan" all the time. (He was a hippie, pure and simple!) Maybe it was because I was a football player who enjoyed hitting other people and rubbing their faces in the goooo. I don't know. Whichever the case, my pottery always leaned, or had holes in it. One of those fine creations ended up being used for target practice at the city dump. (We would go to the dump with our 22.s and shoot anything that didn't move. Kinda made you personally find a way to keep moving...so much for friends:-)

Now, Jean loved pottery. I think there are still a couple of her high school creations somewhere in the house, after 30 years! NO, she wasn't a hippie! She just likes goo! (That's probably why she married me......hmmm) She actually had the patience to sit there and let the clump spin, moving her tiny fingers in just the right ways to make a desire form itself into the clay. She understood how to apply the proper amount of pressure; her use of extra resources like water was done in the right measure so that the clump would remain pliable. (Who knows about her teacher....probably an anti-hippie type.) Anyway, add all of those good pottery principles together and you get a unique and useful creation. At least she did!

Anyway, I ran into this cool verse in Isaiah 64:8; "But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand." I can admit the fact that I am not very pliable at times, well, most of the time if truth be blurted. My guess is, God has a speed button on his pottery wheel that he pushes whenever the Jimclump gets put on the turn. I can imagine his forefinger becomes slightly more like a chisel or gouge with me than it does with most of you sweet readers. The probability is quite high that he has to smash my lumpskull from time to time and start a new thought in me that I hadn't allowed before. I can guarantee the kiln gets hot.....believe me....I know from way to many kilnings.

But the great thing about our potter is, he never ever forever gives up on the clay. We feel like we wash out in our sanctification process every now and again, yet he keeps turning and forming. We are absolutely positive that we are unacceptable in our labor levels, but he keeps adding water to revive the lump. Most of us certainly feel like we haven't been kilned long enough to really be that useful......he keeps cooking.....while finding useful purposes according to his own desires and thoughts. In other words, we are the perpetual clay and he is the perpetual potter.

If you think you are spinning out of control under his formative handling, or that you are too dry to form, don't roll off the deck. Real formation happens when, in our obedience, we stay within the confines of that loving, nail-scarred palm, and those strong carpenter/potter fingers. So, keep spinning for Jesus, maaaaaaaan! (Had to say it...now stop, I never was a hippie)
Pastor Jim