You Are the Potter

Growth in the spiritual life progresses only when we allow God to mold and shape us as a potter does with a lump of clay. Patiently, gently, firmly, the potter molds the wet clay as it spins on his wheel, coaxing from it, as it were, a beautiful and useful piece of pottery, each unique, each the result of the cooperation between the clay and the potter. It's almost as if the clay understands that it will remain an amorphous lump unless it submits to the higher plan of the potter. Submission yields beauty and fulfillment in time. Some of the stages along the way to the final product are not so beautiful, and if the process is interrupted or terminated at any point, disappointment and a sense of failure result. Either the process is begun again, or the clay abandoned.
If we see ourselves as the clay and God as the potter, these words of Jesus make even more sense: "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. this I command you: love one another." (Jn 15: 16-17). The perfectly formed and finished clay pot is the one that accepts being chosen and is full of the love that Jesus commands. You, Lord, are the Potter and I am the clay. Thank you for working with me. Have mercy on me when I fail to live the new life you have given me; raise me up as you raise spinning clay when my sinfulness sinks me into discouragement; grant me courage to renew my desire to live and love according to your will. Amen.
Bro. Rene