I am a cracked pot!

Oct 1, 2009

Romans 9:20-24 (The Message)

 20-33Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?" Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. Hosea put it well:

   I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
      I'll call the unloved and make them beloved.
   In the place where they yelled out, "You're nobody!"
      they're calling you "God's living children."
   Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:
   If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
      and the sum labeled "chosen of God,"
   They'd be numbers still, not names;
      salvation comes by personal selection.
   God doesn't count us; he calls us by name.
      Arithmetic is not his focus.
Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth:
   If our powerful God
      had not provided us a legacy of living children,
   We would have ended up like ghost towns,
      like Sodom and Gomorrah.
How can we sum this up? All those people who didn't seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:

   Careful! I've put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
      a stone you can't get around.
   But the stone is me! If you're looking for me,
      you'll find me on the way, not in the way.


I am a cracked pot! Are you?
Years ago, Steve and I were involved in a ministry where we did this illustration with a clay pot.  It became something that really defined my relationship with Papa.  We first learned of the whole cracked pot concept through Patsy Clairmont.

We turned it into a bible study of sorts and used it to minister to people in a visual way that really touched a lot of lives.  It's one of those visuals that sticks with you years after you see it and God used it in so many wonderful ways in the lives of people we were able to minister to.  Today I needed to be reminded of it.  I've been feeling kind of down lately and just needed something to wake up my sleepy soul.  I needed to be reminded that even though there are days I feel absolutely useless, that is not at all how Papa sees it.  He sees the cracks in "my pot" and knows exactly why each one happened.  He was there when each one happened.  He rubbed his healing balm over the rough pieces to make them not hurt so much.  He saw every tear that was cried for the brokenness that I felt.  He was one the one who put my broken life back together and made it what it is today.

It is a cracked pot, yes, but one that shines with His workmanship and His glory from the inside out.  I have been feeling pretty dim lately and needing Him to shine brighter in my life.  I have tried to take control of things that I need to let Him handle.  It is because of the cracks in my pot that I can shine and only because of Him.  It is out of the broken places that His glory shines and let's other see Him in my life. 

Papa I need you to be the bright light that shines from the inside of me to the outside world.  Forgive me for trying to take control of things that You can handle so much better than me.  Please use my broken spots to shine Your glory into a dark world.  Help me to depend on You to get me through the brokenness that I feel now.


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1 comments:

  1. Heather said...:

    I have always loved this illustration. Good words to read today :)

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