Broken

 Have you ever taken a pottery class? I have. I was lucky enough to attend a Jr. and Senior high school that understood the importance of a varied curriculum and so for one of my electives I chose to take a pottery class. The class was really enjoyable and we did things like pour our own pottery and use the potters wheel,which I was never very good at. Ceramics are a tricky but beautiful art form. There are lots of pottery making methods, some involve using a mold, some involve pinching or molding a pot or sculpture by hand and other a potter's wheel. The artist must pick how they will build their artwork and then proceed but there are many steps before completion in any one of these methods.

For the past several years I have felt like a broken pot. This life has times of great sorrow, hardship, love, joy, prosperity, need, grief, loss and elation. The roads we have all set out on can have twists and turns we never expected and lead us to perils never prepared for. It was in one, or all of those perils in my path that my particular pot was broken. The good thing about pottery is this, it can be fixed or even transformed from misshapen or broken into something right and beautiful. An artist skilled in clay can either use water to re-wet the clay and shape it back into the intended form or break it completely and mix the clay again to make it into an entirely new piece.

God does not intend for us to stay broken. He does not intend for his pots to be walking around with holes in them. God intends for us to be formed to the specific shape and purpose he created us for. We are not to be a misshapen mess that will not function properly. Imagine if you will a wonky coffee cup that will leave coffee all over the front of your work attire. No, no wonky cups, saucers, plates, bowls or the like in God's pottery. You see God is the most skilled potter. If our pot is broken beyond a quick repair he can and sometimes does remake our pots into something even more beautiful.


The process of pottery making always includes the use of a kiln to heat the pottery and harden it for completion. Even after the potter has spent hours forming, molding, taking the rough edges off  and painting the pottery it still has to be fired in the kiln. Tremendous amounts of heat harden the clay into something that we can use for a number of daily tasks. Even if our wonderful and skilled potter has formed us into the particular shape in which he has intended, we may still need to go to the process of firing. The kiln is necessary to harden earthenware, stoneware and porcelain into something that can be used forever.

So what then about us? Are we to stay broken? Are we to resist being fired in the kiln for our completion or refuse to be molded on the potters wheel? Surely not. We must not be defined by our situation, problems, ailments or circumstances, instead be must be defined by the one who made us. We must be defined by the one who created us and breathed life into us. We are created for a specific God honoring use and must trust God's purpose in his process of making us into what he has intended us to be. This past year as I was treated for a cyst in my jaw.  I struggled with being defined by my ailment. After undergoing several surgeries I fell into despair at times. I began to dwell in my perception of what was wrong with my life instead of dwelling in thankfulness for God's provision of a wonderful doctor.  I focused on what I was missing  and it stole my joy. I became the broken pot and intended to stay that way. What I did not realize is that God meant this process to not only heal my jaw but heal my heart. God will mend our brokenness. He will use our struggles and trials to bring us and those around us closer to him. The very God who formed our hearts and created them will be the one to put back the pieces that this world and our circumstances have broken. Only he can restore us and when he does we must live in the victory of his healing and restoration.