STAY ON THE WHEEL

Eight years ago today, I started today journaling.  It was the day after Easter and I was on a cruise ship sailing to Cozumel.  I was desperately unhappy.  Though I'd been going to church every weekend with my husband, I didn’t know God.  But my first journal entry was addressed to Him.   I told Him that I often struggled with things like job, marriage, relationships, feelings of self-loathing, self-pity and guilt.  

Before the trip I had been given a devotional.  The message for the day was “As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand” – Jeremiah 18:6

The devotional went on to say :

  1. The potter has a right to mold you as He sees fit
  2. The potter has an individual plan for each lump of clay.

Of course, the potter was God, but my journal entry asked the question, “if those two things are true, how does free will play into it?  Wouldn’t this negate that?”

But upon further reflection, my conclusion was that at all times God wants to be our potter, but it is up to us to submit to Him and let him mold our lives..

I ended my thoughts that day with a prayer that started, “Our Potter who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...”

The next day I continued to think about what I’d read the day before.  In the devotional for 4/7, I got a new “verse of the day”.  This one was from Jeremiah 18:4, and it said, “He made it again onto another vessel, as it seemed good to the Potter”.

The devotional said that instead of struggling against the will of God, we should rejoice that He is working in us.

I wrote in my journal “we are animated clay, full of self-will, prone to jumping off the wheel when we give into our own wants for our lives”.  And I concluded that the hardest part was to stay on the wheel.

Then I thought about Jesus’ perfect example of that... 

On the Thursday evening that He was betrayed, He was on the Mount of Olives awaiting His arrest.  The Bible said He knew what was coming, and prayed so hard that He not have to go through the ordeal, that blood came from His pores.  However, in an ultimate act of submission Jesus said, “Not my will but yours be done.”

That April 6th eight years ago, I decided I wanted to do follow that example – to submit my life to His will and to commit to staying on the wheel no matter what.  Since then, nothing is the same:

  • I no longer go to the same church and my spiritual life is now rich, full, and rewarding
  • I have been on 3 mission trips with a plan to spend the summer working in Nicaragua – a trip for which I am learning a new language
  • Money is no longer the all-consuming desire of my heart.  I view it as a blessing from God, and a tool to be used to show and share love with others
  • I am retired
  • I am joyful, peaceful, and content.

There is an often quoted saying in 2 Corinthians (5:17), that sums up how I feel today:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  Eight years ago, God began the process in me – I am so thankful!


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