Returning the Clay

by Jacob Chapman

30 // March 2020 P erspective can often be viewed as the hands that shape the clay of our lives. The way we view life is often the way the potter is going to shape the clay. Our lives are the clay, and our perspectives are the hands that form it. Could that be the reason we so often think the clay is ugly, disgraceful, and maybe even in shambles? Maybe sometimes we look at what the clay has become and think, “It cannot be right,” “It should not look that way,” or even that “it is just a pile of our mistakes and anxieties.” I would like to offer a new way to look at how we see and shape our lives.

This first thing you need to know is, it should not be this way. You should not be shaping the clay. You were never meant to be the potter. This is what Isaiah 64:8 says: “Yet, still Yahweh, you are our father. We are like clay and you are our Potter. Each one of us is the creative, artistic work of your hands” (Isaiah 64:8). We were never supposed to be shaping the way we see our lives. It is time to give your life back to God. It is time to hand the clay back to God; we cannot do it on our own. It is time to give the way you see your life back to God. It is time to start seeing our lives the way God sees them and the way He is shaping them to be. If you are tired of the way you see your life, maybe it is time you ask for a Heavenly Perspective: the way God views your life.

I think the next thing you need to look at is whether or not you are willing to admit that His ways are better than our ways. Even more importantly, His thoughts are better than our thoughts. Once we admit this, we need to declare that we trust Him. We declare that what He has for us, the way He thinks about us, and the path He has for us is better and abundantly more than we could ever imagine for ourselves. When you trust Him with your life, He will not let go of it. When you trust Him with your emotions, He never misleads you, and He never is self-serving or selfish. He is always working things out for the betterment of those who give their lives, their trust, and their love wholly to Him.

The truth is, He is enough. He views our lives better than we do. If you are tired of being tired and seeing your life as a pile of mistakes, ask God to show you the way He

sees you. If you trust Him, He will take that clay, the mess you made when you saw your life that way, and He will make it a new creation. In fact, this is what the Bible says He sees us as: “Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If you are tired of the way you see your life, ask for a Heavenly Perspective and trust God; He is the potter, and He always shapes our lives the way they were meant to look. It is time to give the clay back.