Trust and Obey

The clay does not do anything itself but say “yes” and yield to the hands of the potter. It is not about the clay’s effort but about its cooperation. It must trust and obey.

I was throwing a pot that from the very beginning would not center. There was a spiral in it that persisted even though I tried many times to bring it up and down again to correct it. I experienced this inner frustration, which felt the same as the frustration I feel when I am striving by my own efforts it seems and not by grace.

What do I need to do to make this shift into grace? It’s that yielding. Yet this yielding is not so easily done. It is hard to lean into in the moment of intense temptation or anxiety.

I needed to cut the pot off the wheel and discard it, and it made my heart sad. I was sad that it didn’t make it. I was sad that it didn’t yield to my hands. I was sad that it didn’t become all that it could have become if it had yielded. Before I had cut it off, when it was still struggling against my hands, David spoke of a song called “Trust and Obey.” This one did not trust and obey and the result was it’s own frustration, my frustration and, in the end, a frustrated plan.

Yet there is a different way, a different path for one’s life, and that is yielding. The pot that yielded to my hands spun around like it was dancing and opened up like it was singing. It reminded me of Mary, the mother of God. Her yielding, her yes, opened her up into a song of praise to God and incarnated God within her. Her yes yielded the fruit of peace, joy, harmony, and order. Her path was simple because there were no complications of opposing wills.

When people do not yield to God’s Hands, the ultimate end is being cast aside, not because God delights in it or gets some sort of vindication from it. He casts them aside with heaviness and sorrow in His Heart because, despite His infinite love and power to save, they chose not to be. They chose their own will instead. In choosing their own will, no matter how good or reasoned through it may have seemed to them, they did not choose God’s will, and consequently, did not choose God Himself. “I do not desire to lose the least one of these” – and yet, God makes Himself powerless in the face of the free will He gives to His people.

Everything has been done to save us all, but the work now is to yield, to say yes to the way we can access that salvation – by “putting on Christ” (Romans 13). It is within this context of obedience to authority which St. Paul speaks of this. To put on Christ means to also put on His humility, the same humility which He deemed not equality with God something to be grasped and became obedient to the point of death (Phil 2:6, 8). These very places of willful striving apart from grace are the places that need to come under the yoke of Christ, that need to be submitted with Him to our Father.

While this experience with the stubborn clay was a sobering lesson to me, God did not give it without a word of hope. He sings His promises to me all throughout His word: A heart of stone can be turned back into workable clay by being poured over with water, and what a beautiful invitation that is! What a consoling one if I let it be. The beauty of this invitation is that the action required is to receive. The struggle of releasing is met with the promise of receiving. So as I learn again to let go of self-reliant ways and submit to God’s way, He promises waters of refreshment, rest, and peace in return.

Scripture for Reflection:

Ezekiel 36

Psalm 42

Romans 13