Clay

This past Sunday, my minister approached me to ask if I would be willing to serve the church. I had hoped that this day was coming soon. I knew that the lay leadership committee of the church had been working on a slate of officers and committees. The thing is, I wasn’t asked to do the thing that I had hoped to be asked to do. Still, I gladly accepted the position that was offered, knowing that I was well suited to the role and that I could serve the church well there. But, I would be lying if I said I didn't struggle with the fact that, again, I was being asked to serve in a position that was very like my day to day work and was not, in my opinion, necessarily in alignment with my spiritual gifts.

As ususal, my Father spoke to me in my daily Bible reading just a day later:

Woe to the one who argues with his Maker—
one clay pot among many.
Does clay say to the one forming it:
What are you making?
Or does your work [say]:
He has no hands?
How absurd is the one who says to [his] father:
What are you fathering?
or to [his] mother:
What are you giving birth to?"
Isaiah 45:9-10

Oops. You’re right, Lord. I have no right to question. I must remember that the gift that the church has asked me to use to serve the body of Christ is one that God blessed me with every bit as much as the one I hoped to be asked to use (if in fact I even have that gift). In studying more the concept of the potter and the clay, I found additional convicting scriptures:

You have turned things around,
as if the potter were the same as the clay.
How can what is made say about its maker,
"He didn't make me"?
How can what is formed
say about the one who formed it,
"He doesn't understand [what he's doing]"?
Isaiah 29:16

Oops again. I was daring to think that God, through the church, didn’t understand what He was doing. I dared to believe that I know myself and my place better than He did.
Jeremiah says:

So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, working away at the wheel. But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter's hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.
The word of the LORD came to me: "House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter [treats his clay]?"—[this is] the LORD's declaration. "Just like clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel. At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy [it].” Jeremiah 18:3-6

This makes me think perhaps this turn from where I thought God was leading me may have something to do with me being flawed and needing some fine tuning. I was beginning to force my will upon God in many respects. Looking for a greater calling, I was in great need of a lesson in humility.

The scripture continued to speak to me through Paul:

But who are you—anyone who talks back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" Romans 9:20

So, I came to a place where I can happily, willingly say (paraphrasing Isaiah 64:8):

Yes LORD, You are my Father;
I am the clay, and You are my potter;
I am the work of Your hands.

And, I will know that by serving Him where He places me, I am certain to bring Him glory, not myself.

Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

All scripture quoted from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.