Tag: Potter

Sunday Psalm: Humpty Dumpty no more

Karla Lees

I was Humpty Dumpty,
sitting on the wall,
shakily leaning
one way then the other,
until one great shake
caused me to lose my balance
& have a hard fall.

I hit the ground hard,
shattered & cracked
and there I lay,
hurting, in pain, broken.

And then
You came along
& gently picked up my pieces,
lovingly restored me to life,
and painstakingly
mold me into Your vessel again.

Through the fire
You walk with me
as I am lead
to become strong again,
an increasingly used vessel
in the hand of the Potter
who made me
for just such a purpose.

My value is set in Your eyes,
the glow i give off after the fire
radiates Your glory
to all those around me,
as I seek You
for daily filling,
that You may overflow out
through me,
now Your
beautifully broken vessel.

Now fully
put back together,
in the hands
of my King,
shining with His passion,
beating with His heart,
standing in His Presence
scarred but firm in His grip
secure on His sure foundation.
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#SundayPsalm

unadorned cracked pot

Karla Lees

We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives.

2 Cor 4:7a MSG

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

2 Cor 4:7 NIV

But this beautiful treasure is contained in us – cracked pots made of earth and clay – so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us.

2 Cor 4:7 The Voice

This past few weeks have been ones where a few more of my cracks seems to have become wider gaps.

I feel stretched.

As the Potter’s hand works on clay, He keeps needing to wet the clay in order to reshape it.

When i stop seeking His living water, I get too dry.

And cracks form in my pot as it hardens.

The good news?

God can soften hard pots.

But it leaves cracks behind.

I heard a story about a young gal who had to carry water in a cracked pot back & forth, day in and day out. By the time she got home there wasn’t the amount of water she started out with.

Long story short, beautiful flowers appeared on the side of the road where the water had been dripping, day after day.

God never wastes, not one single drop, from our cracks.

I have often wondered if I didn’t have the flaws & foibles I had if God would use me as much….because i suspect i wouldn’t feel the need for Him as acutely as I do throughout my days.

Today, I felt the cracks, after a few days of God soaking & spinning & pressing & smoothing.

I know how much I need Him, the more He sets me free & guides me.

To Him, I am chosen.
To the world, I appear a pudgy married mom of two young adults, with curly red hair & glasses, with a zany sense of humour, who loves words, tea and right now in this cold spell, her heating pad. 🙂

An unadorned cracked pot.

Yet God chooses to use me…

I know that when I have met someone who radiates Jesus, I don’t pay as close attention to their cracks or flaws….I see Jesus pouring out through them.

That’s my heart’s desire.

To be cracked in all the right places for Jesus to shine through me, so although I am humble clay, the Almighty can use me for His glory.

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The Good News Message for us all?

God can use all of us, despite our cracks, chips & holes.

It’s about our availability, our holding out our hands to be filled, not about our capability.

It’s about His ability, to use the cracked, broken & lowly to shoe the world just how loving, graceful, kind, mighty & powerful He really is!

I’m a cracked pot, how about you?

cry of the broken

Karla Lees

You hear the cry of the broken,
You hear the cry of the broken,
You hear the cry of the broken…

You answer the cry of the broken,
You answer the cry of the broken,
You answer the cry of the broken…

–Darlene Zschech,
Your Name/Cry of the Broken

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Feeling broken?
These past few days I have.
But not broken as in I feel like I am shattered beyond repair kind of broken.

Broken by Him, for Him.

I know God is close to the broken, for I was one puzzle pile of mess when He picked me up out of the pit I had dug myself into, cleaned me up & called me Beloved.

God is close to all those of us who desperately need Him to put us back together.

Jesus became God with us to show us all how broken we are without Him.

But there is another kind of broken I am referring to.

Being broken for His purposes.

I recently heard about a course being offered at my former university. Like many of you, I did not complete my degree. I began my family, hubby lost his job & we had to relocate all within a brief period of time.

Now I love learning, so it made sense to try and go back when I was able about 6 years ago. I took two courses and loved it.

Then hubby hurt his back, had the first of two surgeries, i switched jobs, and child number one started university.

Child number two has recently decided to work next year and take some time to figure out which of two paths to take ahead.

Back to the course I found…It is a dream course for me, and hubby gave me his blessing to audit it, and I got the days booked off to take it.

So off to the university I went yesterday to apply. I met with the admissions counselor, and because this course falls within course requirements for a different program than I was in when I was there before, I grew excited about the possibility of finishing my degree as we chatted.

Then I saw the program outline, and my heart sank. I would need to add another year to do so, and the cost when I already have one at university? A mild panic and huge disappointment simultaneously rose within me.

And then God whispered to me:
You don’t need to finish this degree. I have qualified you to do what I have called you to accomplish, and I am using you. You don’t have to look back with regret anymore. I am enough.

My heart broke at the kindness and love in those words….

And I realized that I had been disqualifying myself because I didn’t feel I had the right background or qualifications to do what I am already doing.

When He revealed that reality to me, my soul in its brokenness was set free from the lie I have been believing.

God broke it off in one sentence.

I feel broken but in a good way.
Moldable, use able, despite my flaws.

God is shining through the cracks of this vessel as I continue to become more aware of how He can use me when I am broken of myself and seeking to be used however He chooses.

Broken in God’s hands can become something beautiful.