...clay at it's essential level

Life on the Potter’s Wheel

And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by you hand.

Isaiah 64:8

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So 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 18:1-3

I just got back from Chicago where I finished my training as a spiritual director through North Park Seminary’s Center for Spiritual Direction. It’s a two full year program that has a week’s intensive for three summer sand then classes during the school years in between. It’s been an incredible experience and I’ve made friends who have impacted me significantly.

On the last day, my friend Julie offered our afternoon devotional. I didn’t know it but Julie has been learning how to make pottery for a number of years.  She told us that when someone opens a new package of clay to work on, it’s important that the potter kneads and presses the clay because the clay remembers the touch of the potter’s hand. It literally impacts the clay at an essential, cellular level.  She went on to describe the importance of the process of how the clay is molded and handled in the shaping of a bowl or plate because the smoothing and shaping requires a certain number of times when the potter must use their fingers to press into and move the clay and if they try to skip or shorten that time then the plate will develop an “S”- crack when it dries and if it’s fired in the kiln that way it won’t be useable.

Certainly, Julie’s description and images spoke to me about the essential nature of the touch and work of the potter’s hands on the clay of our lives but actually there was another truth about clay that she shared that’s really stuck with me.  When a piece of pottery dries in such a way that it reveals flaws that indicate that it won’t fire well, the potter breaks it apart so that it can be shaped again. When the potter does this, it is done by hand and the clay is broken into the smallest pieces possible because of the next step that needs to happen. The broken clay pieces are put into a bucket and water poured over it until it stands about an inch or two above the top level of the broken clay pieces.  Then it has to sit, wait and rest…FOR AT LEAST A WEEK.  This can’t be rushed.  If the clay doesn’t sit in the water and slowly soak in just exactly the amount that it needs it won’t be ready to respond to the molding and shaping that the potter wants to do with it.  One of the interesting things Julie shared was that this doesn’t mean that the clay goes back to where it was before it was touched by the potter at the very first.  The clay still has that essential cellular memory and when it’s been resting in the water it becomes as it was after the potter’s initial preparation and it’s again ready to be crafted beautifully into whatever the potter wants it to be. The smaller the pieces, the better it responds to the water and the essential step of resting and soaking the water that enters into the smallest of pieces and brings it to the place where it responds to the skilled and known hands of the potter.  I’d never heard this before I had no idea that this was such an essential step. 

All of us have times in our lives when we feel like we’ve been broken into little pieces.  It’s when we are that God’s Spirit enters in at our most essential level…that smallest, deepest place of who we are…our soul. The Lord is the one who refreshes and replenishes. In John 7 we hear about this very clearly,

“Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will be flowing from his heart.’ (When he said ‘living water’, he was speaking of the Spirit who would be given to everyone believing in him…)”

John7: 37b-39a

Isn’t that great!  This truth is so important to Jesus that he shouted it so that the crowds would hear. It’s that important to the Lord that we know that God alone is our source.

One of my favorite songs about this idea came out about 20 years or so in an arrangement of “Jesus Lover of My Soul” by Ken Medema.  There’s a wistful quality to it that has come to my mind as I imagine being a piece of clay that’s feeling pretty worked over and is serious need of rest in the Living Water. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share it with you.  It’s really the music I want to share with you so if you want to skip the visual images feel free.  I’ve just been closing my eyes and soaking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuQOXRJ-xzc

There is always a place and time for us to be deeply touched by the One who is called the Potter.  Whether we’re actively on the wheel or resting in the Living Water it is all part of the essential, unique and very personal way God engages us, molds us, crafts us, delights in us.

Potter’s Wheel will gather again this Sunday at 5:00pm on the courtyard at Second Church at 55^th and Brookside.  We’ll enjoy a potluck meal and continue to share the journey together…on the Potter’s Wheel. COME JOINUS!  If you need more information, please feel free to contact me.

God’s Peace,

Mary

Searching for....and FINDING...a portable chapel of prayer

Life on the Potter’s Wheel

There is a community of people who live in the very northeastern part of England where it is bordered by Scotland and the North Sea.  It’s called the Northumbria Community.  It’s not monastic in the idea of living all together, sharing the dwelling and a common purse, rather it’s about intention because the people of this community are scattered all over Great Britain and well beyond.  There are those who live this rugged part of England but it appears that in most cases there are those who never do.  They just continue to live ordinary daily lives with all the usual demands of work and family, school and home and all the little and big things that go along with it. 

I was reading the introduction to their book, “Celtic Daily Prayer”. In it Richard Foster tells of a visit to Northumbria and conversations with two of the actual residents who show him unique isolated places that have been and in one person’s case is still used as a solitary, out of the way spot where they have been able to connect with God.  After visiting these two places, Foster comments, “I am profoundly struck by the image of a prayer chapel right at the center of this place of retreat and renewal. How appropriate, how fitting, how right.  I am drawn to consider how at the very center of my home, my place of work, my very life, there could always be a portable chapel of prayer.”  This sentence really gave me pause because of how it reflects my own recent journey.

For the last number of weeks I’ve been visiting a wide variety of coffee locals – both busy and quiet, a couple of parks, and a few other places and the exploration continues.  In truth there is a part of me that’s looking for that “portable chapel of prayer”.  This week as I’d been thinking more about it and came upon Foster’s words I’ve been really considering that this portable chapel has far less to do with any actual location, although certainly there are places where God meets us in unique and wonderful ways, rather it’s so much more about accessing that place in my heart, my soul where I offer myself up most fully to engaging with God.  Sometimes it’s outside in a beautiful setting, the corner of the couch in my living room, a coffee house in Brookside or in my car driving across town.  So, while there are always wonderful aesthetic qualities to places or prayer tools or music but the real portable prayer chapel is quite simply that place in me, “the very center of my home, my place of work, my very life…” 

The journey of this discovery is something that the people of Northumbria share no matter where they are physically.  It’s something that we can share as well.  That’s the community; together or apart that is a unique sharing that this missional community of Potter’s Wheel can do “together” no matter our location through the week.

We'll be gathering for a time of refreshment and prayer at 5:00 Sunday evening at the court yard at Second Church at 55^th and Brookside.   Come join us!

God’s Peace,

Mary

Discovering Gratitude in Unexpected Places

Life on The Potter’s Wheel

July 19, 2012

It’s been an interesting few weeks, the kind of time where things feel more unraveled than together.  The kind where goofy things keep happening and you’re horrified to realize you’re the one doing them.  The kind of time where I discover I have been softer clay in The Potter’s hands even though it really didn’t have all that much to do with me being obedient or responsive but more because I’ve unintentionally done just really squirrely things that have me feeling rather small and discovering sometimes that’s the best place to be.

During this season there have been many times when I’ve really sensed that the Lord wanted me to consider two specific ideas: 1) What does it mean to pray without ceasing 2)Gratitude 

A couple of weeks ago at our Potter’s Wheel gathering on Sunday evening we were talking about gratitude.  Lois, one of our group, mentioned that some time before she heard about a gratitude exercise which encourages a person to be open to getting stretched beyond those maybe few things that quickly come to their minds when they think about things they’re grateful for.  The idea is that each day for a month you identify five things that you’re grateful for.  Sounds easy enough but here’s the tricky part.  You do this every day for a month and you cannot repeat anything that you’ve already listed.  Believe me it starts getting harder rather quickly and then a remarkable thing happens. You start noticing things you hadn’t even considered. Then you start noticing how that changes how you view more and more things and that gratitude begins to expand and go deeper.  I’ve noticed many little things that bring me to a place of gratitude and then that moves me to a place of worship and I’ve found myself rejoicing to God for some of the most remarkable things that I would never have thought about.  For me it’s not the big things rather it’s the very little things that I truly believe God has brought to my awareness.  Let me highlight a few just from this week.

v  A glass of cold iced tea in the afternoon

v  Driving past a beautifully green corn field in Iowa (yes it truly exists along I-80) and this field is so dense and tightly planted that it actually reveals the rolls of the ground where it’s planted and it’s just breathtaking.

v  A really good sneeze

v  Praying with friends in the morning

v  Going into my day know I have friends praying for me

v  Hope in a God who is gracious so that when I really goof I receive the Lord’s mercy new each morning.

Seriously, those are some that have just come to my mind this week.  Now I can’t tell you that I’ve written these down every day and that I’m going to have a long list at the end of the month.  But I will tell you it’s giving me new things to bring before the Lord in prayer.  It’s opening up a new idea of praying without ceasing.  I find the gratitude grows exponentially and joy follows.

Yesterday, I met with my friend Jamie.  Jamie ministers to college students and she’s going to be working on a new campus this fall so we met there to pray for the campus, the students and all the other people who are part of that community.  As we sat in the chapel on campus and prayed we were looking through Scripture for those passages that might pop out to us. As I turned through Colossians I came to Colossians 4:2 and it’s really stuck with me since. “Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.”   I’m discovering that as I do this…the joy builds.

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A couple of special notes about our Sunday gatherings over the next couple of weeks.  I’m going to be traveling to Chicago for the last of my classes for the Spiritual Direction certification I’ve been pursuing through North Park Seminary.  Laura Stack was gracious in leading the gathering last Sunday and this Sunday Louise Mathis will be leading.  Because of the extraordinary heat forecasted for Sunday, we’ll gather again at The Roasterie Café at 63^rd and Brookside Blvd.  Because Hillcrest’s Annual Meeting is scheduled for Sunday, July 29^th, we won’t be gathering that evening but will come together again the next Sunday, August 5^th.  Hopefully we’ll be back on The Courtyard at Second Church at 55^th and Brookside.  We’ll watch the weather and let you know. We want everyone to be safe so stay tuned for more details.

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I’m grateful to be journeying with you…

On the Potter’s Wheel!

God’s Peace,

Mary

Every little thing....

A sparrow just hopped by.  It picked up a quick crumb from the deck before it seemed to dash off for fear of being noticed.  I’m not sure anyone noticed.  The Bible tells us that God notices.   A little spider is crawling across a tile just more than an arm’s length away.  I don’t think that it knows that its location is very fortunate as it, for the moment, ensures its survival.  I’ve already killed at least three little intruders which have daned to cross my table or run under the cover of my journal as if it might somehow read the private thoughts on the pages.  They don’t seem so awfully significant because they are small.  I am small to God and yet the Bible tells me how significant I am.

In the book on Celtic prayer I’ve been reading I’m reminded of the extraordinary juxtaposition of the centuries.  We’ve tended to think about people who live such fragile lives as different, distant, God-forgive-us, less than our more highly “developed” “self-important” contemporary existence. They now strike me as quite brave and strong and wise.  I wouldn’t last five minutes in their ruthless environment (which actually is part of my heritage and ancestry).  All of the sudden I, again, feel quite small. 

Another sparrow has just hopped onto the base of the table next to me.   I see him. God sees us both. 

“But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground with you father knowing it.  And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows” Matt. 10: 29b-31

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