Spoiled Clay

A couple of weekends ago I went on a beach retreat with the youth from our church.

(Side note: It was FREEZING!)

One night, Brad (the youth pastor) spoke very personally about his life. He was on a rough path for most of his childhood and teenage years. He has been through a lot that I have never, and hope to never, experience.

At one point Brad recalled that at age 17 he realized (oddly enough- through the messy mistake of a Cherokee Indian potter) that his life was perfectly depicted by a mess of clay splattered all over the room.

He retold this passage from Jeremiah 18 about the potter and the clay:

'God told Jeremiah, "Up on your feet. Go to the potter's house. When you get there I'll tell you what I have to say." So I went to the potter's house and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot. Then God's message came to me: "Can't I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?" God's decree! "Watch this potter. In the same way this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel.'

Yes, I have heard this story many times. But for a few reasons, it went straight to my heart that weekend.

MAN, I screw up a lot! I often have a bad attitude, I forget to love people, I get lazy, I get selfish, I let other people's issues drag me down, and trust me - there's plenty more to add to this list.

And that's not even mentioning the things that I don't necessarily bring on myself - it's hard to deal with some things that come your way in life - even though we try sometimes we just can't seem to "fix" ourselves. Half the time we dont' even know where the junk comes from.

THEN on top of that, I don't know about you, but realizing all of these shortcomings puts me in a worse mood and then I start letting myself feel defeated and on and on... ;)

(I know, poor me right?)

Sometimes we aren't even aware that we are broken, and sometimes we are so aware of it that we feel spread out across a room in little pieces.

There is a lot going on in life right now, for me and for several of my friends. As stinky and hard as that can be, I love remembering that my God is bigger. What a load off! :)

I am a work in progress and I am learning.

Even when it feels like you take 14 steps backwards, THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE.

Sometimes it feels like we have "turned out badly", but we can always be re-shaped.

Sometimes I think I need to remember that my clay hasn't dried yet.