Pushed into Shape

Life applies constant pressure, but I have a bad habit of ignoring it.
It pushes and I push back.
It takes my head in both hands and turns me in one direction and I look longingly to another.

And all the while, I do not see that the hands that redirect are God's.

I went down to the potter's house and I saw him working at the wheel, but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.--Jeremiah 18:3-4

God gave me the right to go my own way, but He did not consent to make me comfortable there.  He promises to correct, to amend, to shape me relentlessly.


He, and only He, knows my intended shape, and this is it:
I am supposed to look like Him. 
 
He builds and rebuilds, always to the same model: His own.  He knows I mess myself up and constantly applies the pressure necessary to re-form me.

My God, my Creator, wants me to recover my original design.
Everything that He brings me in the course of living is designed to achieve this.
As long as I wake up every day, I am not finished.
My most important job is not to preach, or teach, or witness, or work.
It is worship Him and thus, to return fully to Him.  Period.

I work not to get a job done, but because God works.
I sacrifice not to achieve an end, but because God sacrificed.
I love not to further a relationship, but because God is love.

Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand...--Jeremiah 18:6
For every living soul belongs to me...--Ezekiel 18:1

Every time I yield to Your touch, I come closer to Your side, O Lord.  The pot you are making bears the marks of Your hands, but when you release it, looks like You.

Already Begun, Part 4

So we are no longer carefree youths. God is growing us up.  We have come to understand that His way will not be smooth. The faith we grabbed with such exuberance has brought testing that stripped us bare.The hard news has joined hands with the good news.

  Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?--Job 2:10

This series has been about understanding that we are part of a story already begun, and a story moved forward both in heaven and on earth by the progression of our lives. Part 1  put our ongoing story into perspective in the face of a new calendar year, Part 2 reminded us that Christ borders our initial life with Him with obedience, and Part 3 brought the sometime-unwelcome news that any growth we experience brings hard times, and with them, sufficient grace.

God has a reason for bursting our bubble.  He strips earthly comforts to accomplish our readiness for grace.  As the discipline of trial is a gift from God, so is the grace He gives to see it through.  We cannot gain grace without accepting trial.

But the trouble that purifies has special qualities.  This trouble is not a minor annoyance.  Like fire, it is a flesh-destroying terror.

This terror, this destruction of flesh, is the gift God gives to those who follow Him. 

Grace brings relief by transferring the burden to Christ, but ease is not its purpose.  Life's shattering trials and the grace that accompanies them are the doors through which we must walk to holiness.

Now that you have been set free from sin and become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life.--Romans 6:22


The climax of our part of this world's story nears.

God did not make men to make them happy.  He did not make us for comfort or pleasure. God made men to be like Him.


So, He gives us humanity, then hammers on  His gift until it resembles His own image. The beating leaves us torn and needy, needy enough to give up and accept the grace that relieves and thus the holiness that brings us to the place by the Lord's side for which He created us.

But God is still not done yet.
See Part 5.

Already Begun, Part 3

I remember when my youngest son realized that, when he got out of college, he would have to take his place as an adult, assume responsibility, and  in general, grow up.  He was not impressed.  He quickly decided that growing up did not live up to its advance publicity.  He would have much rather remained carefree, allow someone else to maneuver him out of difficulties, and focus on whatever pleasant circumstances that life brought his way.

Now, I can almost see you shaking your head, maybe even chuckling.  You know that my son had to man up, to grow up, or live a life barren of accomplishment or earned satisfaction.  He had to learn that work, not pleasure, frames life and, to his credit, he did.

We, however, as believers, often do not. In  Part 1 and Part 2, we explored how, though we might begin a new calendar year, the journey of our life with God  began long ago. Now, consider that, in getting a grip on our ongoing story, we don't always think about how our faith lives must change.  Like my son, we do not consider that, after our first taste of easy adulthood, God will up the ante.  He doesn't say, 'Relax, you've earned it.'  Instead, he tells us to get our still-immature behind in gear.

He wants more for us and He expects us to want it, too.
From everyone who has been given much, much more will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.--Luke 12:48

Faith comes with a price.  It will not ease my way; it will pile it with obstruction.

As the faith is God's gift, so are life's challenges.  As one increases, so will the other. But, as trouble increases, so does grace.

Grace does not come with ease.  It is not needed there.  

As we ask for  revelation of faith, for wisdom, for a greater vision of God Himself, we have to remember that trouble and challenge will be their companions.  But so will grace, our access to your already-accomplished victory.

We should not be surprised when God pares away what we do not need in order to fully animate what we do.

And, thankfully, He has still more.
See Part4.

Time Out in the Big Chair

Most people understand that children need discipline. Without it, neither manners nor morals take hold and the resultant adults range from selfish to sociopaths. We want more, both for the sake of the forming human and for our own. We do, after all, have to live together.

I accept the need for childhood discipline, even when I have to administer it. It's harder to accept the need for my own. I am far from childhood, and when discipline comes from authorities in my own life, its source is often younger and less experienced. I don't like it one bit.

When someone feels the need to correct me, I also often find that the discipline's severity or emphasis outstrips the nature of the offense. We just want to control each other, to impinge our own wills on one another. We want our way. We want to win. I am just as guilty of this, but feel it most when I am on the receiving end.

Human authorities rule out of a need to prove their superiority. You do not do that. You have complete confidence in Your own rule, so You discipline for another motive. You do not discipline for Your benefit, but for mine.

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness.--Hebrews 12:10

Adults correcting one another do so in full knowledge of their mutual imperfection. We often fear another's competence and confidence. As a result, we grind down one another's spirits, deflating and destroying, lacking love and redemptive goals. We fear exposure of our deficiencies.

You, however, do not need to prove anything. When You discipline, you teach with one hand and lift up with the other. You do not desire less for me, but more. You want me to learn and grow. Even more, You want me to know holiness. I welcome a time out for that.