Romans 9:21 –
When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?
This is one of those verses that is beautiful but painful at the same time. As we read this we all want to make ourselves the jar for decoration, but you know what some of us need to be trash cans. It’s so hard for many of us to accept our place in life; we all have this prince charming syndrome where we expect to be part of the royal order. As hard as this may sound, everyone can’t be the king or queen.
Some of us have a much harder time accepting this than others and believe me I will put my name at the top of this list. I have always felt that I had a much higher calling than what I am doing. At 16 I was a land surveyor and started to compare my “destiny” with another famous land surveyor, George Washington. How arrogant was that to assume that because myself and the father of our country were both land surveyors in their youth, that qualified me to be the leader of our nation?
I consider myself delusional much of the time. Do you ever feel like God is shaping you to become a wonderfully useful trash receptacle and you keep messing with the clay to form what you want? Ever watch a potter with a lump of clay? It’s cool that as it’s spinning they mold it into whatever they want, and if they mess up, the work may be picked up and slammed back onto the wheel as a lump again. I feel like that happens to me almost on a weekly basis!
How about you? Are you willing to accept your “lot” in life or do you feel there is more for you and no matter what the circumstances you will strive for more? Are you a lifeless lump of clay or are you actively trying to shape your life into what you want? Or are you actively helping God, the potter, shape you into what He wants? This is where the analogy doesn’t hold water too well, pun intended. I don’t believe God wants us to be a lump of clay, but at the same time he does not want us to be the potter.
I believe he wants us to be active in helping HIM mold us, accepting our destiny and working to glorify Him through it. No matter if you are a president or a garbage collector, God wants you to shine his light at all times. And no I have no desire to lead our great nation, would not want the years from high school to present under the “microscope” of the press. The key point is don’t fight the molding, but work with it because it hurts to be slammed into the wheel and have the remolding process begin again … especially as we get older!