...the Potter made the vessel and then placed it on a shelf for another day and time?
I emailed a friend and asked him that question. He responded with one word: "Yes."
I had been having trouble writing. I had difficulty squeezing out anything that made any sense. I didn't even feel comfortable commenting on other's blogs. Every day something occurred in my life that I wanted to talk about. Every day situations popped up that I found funny and encouraging. But for some reason I couldn't connect words to describe what I found funny or encouraging in the midst of chaos and difficulty that might seem relevant or worth hearing to another. Nothing seem to roll off the tips of my fingers. What once came easy, seemed so difficult.
I remembered a sermon from several years ago when a pastor preached about the potter making a vessel and how it is the potter's choice to do with the vessel what he wills. The preacher said, "Sometimes God puts us on a shelf." My writing quandry and that sermon recollection is what prompted my question to my friend. Do you ever feel like that? If so, maybe you'll find comfort in the words my friend added in another email to me a bit later in the day:
"However, I think He still has a purpose for us in the meantime.
But it seems that sometimes He does something in our lives and it is not until years later, that we see the good results and purpose for what He did, maybe years before.
One of my favorite stories is a a seminary student who could not get a job on a church staff. The only thing he could find was a job working on outboard motors for boats. He learned everything about outboard motor repair. He thought it was a total waste of time when he could have been getting experience in the ministry.
He later became a missionary in Africa where the only way you could get around to the villages was on a huge lake. All the missionaries had available were beat up old boats and worse outboard motors. The outboard motors were in constant need of repair. God seemed to have known what He was doing."
We need to keep telling our story. We need to share how God works with us each day. There is a purpose in doing so--even if we don't understand it. selahV
